Saviors
by TheRealDigiGal
Summary: After three years, the clans have mostly adjusted to the fifth clan. The amounts of border fights have decreased, as has the qualms within the clans. However, the Different aren't at peace yet. Starclan come to them with a request, and it's up to them to save the clans at the lake once again.
1. Allegiances

**Surprise?**

* * *

Allegiances

* * *

 **Lightclan**

Leader: Skystar - slightly bushy gray tom with black stripes and a light brown underbelly, muzzle, and end of tail, amber eyes

Deputy: Deadeye - white tom with gray ears, tail, muzzle, and paws, and longer brown fur over a blind (left) eye of two deep amber eyes, scar over his blind eye

Medicine cats:

Moongaze - black tom with a silver crescent on his head and dark blue eyes

Birdwhisper - creamy she-cat

Warriors:

Pebblefall - tortoiseshell she-cat

Sunfoot - tuxedo tom with a lazy yellow eye and a normal amber eye

Badgerstripe - white she-cat with a black stripe down the back of her head to the base of her tail, and green eyes

Mudsplash - blue-gray tom with a brown face, ginger ears, and light blue eyes

Darkpelt - deep blue-gray tom with a ginger paw and ginger patch over his blue eyes

Fluffheart - long-furred brown tom with a stubbed black tail and amber eyes

Needleclaw - brown tom with a few black stripes and amber eyes

Whitepelt - white she-cat with a black tail, brown ears, and green eyes

Ravenstorm - slightly bushy dark gray she-cat with amber eyes, mentor of Sheeppaw

Russetspots - black tom with ginger flecks and spots, white chest and underbelly, and green eyes, mentor of Tigerpaw

Nightflame - black she-cat with white spots and green eyes

Redwing - ginger she-cat with darker ginger stripes, a white muzzle, a white ring around her neck, and blue eyes

Foxblaze - white tom with longer deep ginger fur on the top of his head, a deep ginger tail tip, and blue-green eyes [Fox], mentor of Flashpaw

Emberwish - reddish-brown she-cat with amber eyes [Ember]

Pufftail - white she-cat with a black stripe from her forehead to the tip of her tail, two orange stripes flanking the black stripe, one black front paw and one orange front paw, a fluffy tail, and bright blue eyes

Snakepelt - light creamy-gray tom with darker gray spots and stripes [Slink]

Flowerheart - light gray she-cat with unusual light purple eyes [Lilac]

Spoteye - cream tom with a white spot over one eye

Evemist - gray she-cat with dark blue eyes [Evekit]

Leafbreeze - brown she-cat with ginger flecks and amber eyes [Leafkit]

Petalspots - rosy she-cat with green eyes [Petalkit]

Volestorm - brown tom with a light brown underbelly and chin, and yellow eyes [Volekit]

Brightpelt - small white she-cat with dark blue eyes [Brightkit]

Jayheart - dark gray tom with blue eyes [Jaykit]

Larkstrike - light gray tom with a white belly and muzzle and a darker stripe down his back, and pale blue eyes (son of Deadeye and Pufftail)

Roselight - rosy tabby she-cat with white paws, muzzle, chest, and belly, darker and longer fur on the top of her head, a fluffy tail, and deep blue eyes (daughter of Deadeye and Pufftail)

Willowspot - white she-cat with gray, brown, ginger, and black flecks, and deep amber eyes (daughter of Deadeye and Pufftail)

Finchheart - light gray tabby she-cat with white paws and deep amber eyes (daughter of Deadeye and Pufftail)

Ivyfur - dark gray tabby she-cat (daughter of Moongaze and Redwing (separate litter))

Apprentices:

Tigerpaw - ginger she-cat with black stripes and one amber and one green eye (daughter of Skystar and Badgerstripe)

Flashpaw - gray tom with thin white lines running jaggedly down his sides and dark blue eyes (son of Skystar and Badgerstripe)

Sheeppaw - fluffy white and gray she-cat with blue eyes (daughter of Skystar and Badgerstripe)

Queens:

Snowflight - pure white she-cat with green eyes, mother of Needleclaw's kit, Smokekit

Kits:

Smokekit - smokey gray tom with deep amber eyes

Elders:

Firetail - white tom with a ginger tail and back

Frostpelt - brown she-cat with light gray flecks

Sandstripe - sand-colored tabby tom

Mousebelly - brown tom with a lighter brown belly

Pitchfur - pure black she-cat

 **Thunderclan**

Leader: Thornstar - light gray tabby tom

Deputy: Blackspot - brown tom with a black spot on his chest

Medicine cat: Dawnmask - dark blue and dark red she-cat, mentor of Hazelpaw

Warriors:

Redleaf - red tom

Graylight - light gray she-cat

Swallowheart - black and red tom

Hailstorm - white she-cat with gray and black flecks

Vinepelt - light gray tom with darker gray stripes and spots (former kittypet)

Birdtail - blue-gray she-cat with long-furred tail (past loner)

Whiteleap - long-furred gray tom with a white belly, mentor of Blackpaw

Rockpelt - grayish-brown tom

Marigold - pale yellow tabby she-cat

Birchstripe - light brown tabby tom (son of Evepelt and Blackspot)

Honeypuddle - dark golden she-cat (daughter of Evepelt and Blackspot)

Littlespot - small light gray she-cat with darker spots (daughter of Redleaf and Graylight)

Jaggedstripe - gray tom with jagged stripes (son of Redleaf and Graylight)

Junipernose - pure white she-cat (daughter of Blackspot and Evepelt)

Apprentices:

Hazelpaw - light brown tabby she-cat (daughter of Hailstorm and Brackenfoot)

Blackpaw - black tom (son of Hailstorm and Brackenfoot)

Queens:

Evepelt - dark gray she-cat, expecting Blackspot's kits

Elders:

Lilystream - dark tabby she-cat with white patches and pale green eyes

Cherrystream - ginger she-cat

Molefur - brown-and-cream tom

Dewfrost - gray tom with amber eyes

Snowstorm - white tom with amber eyes

Ambergaze - gray she-cat with white paws, muzzle, and right ear, and amber eyes

Dusklight - molted gray and black she-cat

Brackenfoot - dark brown tom with rough pads

Hazelstream - brown she-cat with lighter brown stripes and a white belly

 **Shadowclan**

Leader: Pinestar - black-striped brown tom

Deputy: Gingertail - ginger she-cat

Medicine cats:

Foxfur - she-cat with a fox-like pelt

Frogleap - gray tom

Warriors:

Dustheart - brown she-cat

Honeydrop - golden-ginger she-cat

Tornpelt - heavily scarred gray tabby tom

Featherstep - fluffy light gray she-cat

Softfoot - light brown tom

Redfern - ginger she-cat

Hawkfoot - brown, light gray, and dark gray tom

Rainbreeze - light gray tabby she-cat

Brownfur - light brown tabby tom, mentor of Snowpaw

Twigpelt - brown tabby tom (son of Fernbush and Hawkfoot)

Hazelstripe - pale yellow tabby she-cat (daughter of Fernbush and Hawkfoot)

Dappleheart - tortoiseshell she-cat (daughter of Featherstep and Pinestar)

Stormclaw - gray tom (son of Featherstep and Pinestar)

Frosteyes - white she-cat with ice blue eyes

Bristlepelt - long furred brown tabby tom

Sootfoot - black tom with gray paws

Apprentices:

Snowpaw - light gray tom

Queens:

Sandpelt - tan and white she-cat, mother of Softfoot's kits, Leafkit and Graykit

Fernbush - gray she-cat, expecting Hawkfoot's kits

Kits:

Leafkit - pale ginger and brown she-cat

Graykit - light gray tom

Elders:

Stonetail - dark gray tom

Stormheart - white she-cat

Raggedfur - light gray tom with eternally tangled fur

 **Windclan**

Leader: Lightningstar - yellowish tabby she-cat

Deputy: Lionpelt - golden tabby tom

Medicine cat: Whistlewind - tan tom

Warriors:

Dustcloud - light-brown splotched white tom

Dirtfur - dark brown tom

Harestep - light brown she-cat

Bushfur - fluffy gray she-cat

Eveningfall - dark blue-gray she-cat

Ashtail - light gray she-cat with a dark gray tail

Cheetahtail - yellowish she-cat with a long tail

Longpelt - long-furred gray and white tom

Breezeheart - light gray she-cat, mentor of Nightpaw

Fawnleap - light brown she-cat with darker brown spots

Clovergaze - white she-cat with pale green eyes

Crowtail - black tom

Ringtail - white she-cat with dark blue rings on her tail (daughter of Eveningfall and (deceased) Cloudstar)

Owlheart - brown and white tom with yellow eyes (son of Harestep and Thistleheart)

Peakstone - light brown tom with yellow eyes (son of Harestep and Thistleheart)

Dustfoot - dusty brown tom (son of Dirtfur and Ashtail)

Apprentices:

Nightpaw - dark gray tom

Queens:

Silverleaf - silver she-cat, mother of Longpelt's kits, Darkkit and Mousekit

Kits:

Darkkit - dark blue-gray tom

Mousekit - gray and brown tom

Elders:

Whiskertail - light brown tom

Thistleheart - blue-gray tom

 **Riverclan**

Leader: Rippledstar - blue-gray tabby she-cat

Deputy: Owlstorm - white tom with black flecks

Medicine cat: Blueleaf - blue-gray tom with gray ears, mentor of Goldenpaw

Warriors:

Whiteblaze - black tom with a splash of white on his chest

Sparrowfur - long-furred black tom with a white belly and ginger paws

Splashpelt - light gray she-cat with white spots

Mouseclaw -brown tom with black ears

Patchfur - calico she-cat

Duskeyes - dark gray she-cat with dark blue eyes

Minnowfoot - gray tabby she-cat

Mossripple - blue-gray she-cat with a white belly, paws, and muzzle

Ivylight - super light-gray she-cat with white stripes

Salmontail - gray, dark gray, and red tom, mentor of Berrypaw

Stormheart - dark gray tom

Drippelt - gray tabby tom

Reedstripe - ginger tabby tom (son of Mudpelt and Splashpelt)

Hailstripe - light gray tabby she-cat (daughter of Owlstorm and Ivylight)

Tinydrop - small gray she-cat (daughter of Owlstorm and Ivylight)

Apprentices:

Berrypaw - blue-gray tom

Goldenpaw - golden she-cat

Queens:

Mistbreeze -light gray she-cat, mother of Mouseclaw's kit, Blackkit

Kits:

Blackkit - black tom

Elders:

Mossytail - brown-and-white she-cat

Mudpelt - pure dark muddy brown tom

Petalstream - rosy she-cat with white dots

Spottedfern - tortoiseshell she-cat

 **Cats outside the clans**

Flicker - gray tabby tom with ginger tabby patches

Jane - light brown she-cat

Willy - light gray tabby tom

Melody - light gray tabby she-cat with pale blue eyes

Emmy - tan she-cat with a white muzzle and deep amber eyes

Snail - tan tom

Strike - nearly black tabby tom with a white underbelly and light blue eyes

Dots - dark gray tom with brown spots and amber eyes

* * *

 **So... Hi?**

 **Have been working on this since around the time that I finished updating Different... And btw this is going to be a monster of a story, because I'm writing chapter 34 currently and I'm not even halfway through the plot.**

 **If you haven't noticed, this is a sequel to Different. There are some new cats, some new adventures, some new romances (cause it's me, and every single one of my stories eventually has some romance in it). I'm super excited for you all to read it.**

 **I haven't drawn cover art yet, but I know what I want it to be, so hopefully that'll be done soon.**

 **Also, be ready for some heart-wrenching moments XP**

 **Gonna post the prologue in a bit! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	2. Prologue

**Prologue. Boom. (Btw, sorry the prologue is so short)**

* * *

Prologue

A gentle wind blows through a shining forest, leaves green and water shimmering. The grass in the forest is covered in dew, little drops of water wiped away as the fur of a paw brushes the grass.

"I'm worried. Why hasn't he come back yet?," a blue-gray she-cat says, pacing back and forth. "We only have a few days until the sickness. If we don't get the flower-"

"Bluestar. Don't stress," a white tom says from where he was clawing a tree. "He'll be back in no time."

"It's already been a whole day since he left, Whitestorm. He should've been back by now."

"Maybe he just got caught up. Or maybe he took a wrong turn," Whitestorm suggests. Bluestar, however, continues pacing and he sighs. "Maplepelt knows how important the flower is. He'll be back in no time."

"I hope," Bluestar growls lightly, and looks up when the bushes rustle.

Maplepelt pads through, his ears down and clearly worried. "Uh...," he starts. "We have a problem."

"What is it?," Whitestorm asks. "What's wrong?"

"The flower wasn't there."

* * *

"What do we do?," Bluestar asks Yellowfang once all of Starclan is informed of the extreme misfortune. "Without the flower, Starclan isn't healthy. If we don't get the flower-"

"I know. I know," Yellowfang growls to her. "I'm thinking."

"The only thing I can think of is there is one more hidden with the clans," Mistystar says, tail twitching. "But we would need to send warriors to get it. And there's no guarantee that they'll even be able to bring it back, or find it in the first place."

"Not to mention how dangerous it is," Blackstar says. "Somecat will die. It's just expected."

"But maybe if they've been through it before, no one will die," Yellowfang says, seeming to get an idea. "Especially if they have special qualities to them."

Bluestar stares at her. "You can't mean... Are suggesting we send the different to find the flower?"

Yellowfang nods, and Bluestar shakes her head in disbelief, sighing.

"You know it's the only way," Mistystar says, and Bluestar nods.

"I know," the past Thunderclan leader says, then looks at Yellowfang. "Find the location of the flower. I'll call the different and tell them."

* * *

 **And so, the main plotline of the story is discovered.**

 **I'm going to say right off the bat, this story is _planned_ so the main plotline is actually clear. It is nothing like with how I was just randomly writing things in Different. I have planned out the entire plotline for this, even down to the minor details, so... yeah.**

 **I really hope you guys enjoy this story as much as you did with Different. In my opinion, this one is better, so I hope you guys like it as much as I do. I'll be updating it like I did with Different, but every Saturday, so... Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	3. Chapter 1

**Welcome to chapter one!**

* * *

Moongaze's pov

"Looks like it was just one kit. A tom," I announce, moving the kit to Snowflight's belly. It gives a small cry before finding the milk from Snowflight and beginning to suckle.

"That's a Smokekit," Needleclaw says pointedly, he and Snowflight looking down at the tom. His fur was a mix of grays, exactly like the color of smoke.

"I'll have Birdwhisper bring some borage leaves. I have to go and check on Flowerheart," I say.

"I'm still wondering when she'll be moving to the nursery. She announced the kits a quarter moon ago," Snowflight says to Needleclaw as I exit the nursery.

The entire clan turns to me as I exit the nursery into the main camp, all conversation dying down into silence, and I see Evemist, Leafbreeze, and Petalspots jumping to their feet. "One kit. It's a tom."

The clan cheers, and the three younger warriors run up to me. "Can we go in? Is that okay?," Petalspots asks, she and her two littermates looking very excited.

"Sure. Just be quiet. Snowflight is tired and your new brother will be confused," I say, and they nod, talking excitedly in hushed voices as they pad past me.

"Have they named it yet?," I hear, and turn to see Whitepelt and Fluffheart.

"Maybe. They called him Smokekit. Not sure if it stuck or not," I say. "Have you seen Flowerheart? I need to make she she isn't going through too much stress."

Whitepelt nods. "Snowflight's yowls were bothering her ears, so Foxblaze and her went on a walk around the territory," she says. "They should be back soon."

"I hope," I say. "She needs rest if she wants to keep up with her warrior duties."

Whitepelt sighs, Fluffheart padding away to wait with Darkpelt to see Smokekit. "I promise I'm trying to get her to move to the nursery. She's just so stubborn. Being a warrior has definitely changed her."

"Tell me about it," I say. Ever since Flowerheart had her name changed from Lilac and she began doing warrior duties, such as helping the apprentices train for battles and hunting and such, she had toughened up and was now a quite dangerous cat to go up against. "She went from freaking out at Cloudstar's death to making other warriors freak out when they see her during battle."

"Yeah. Exactly," Whitepelt purrs. "Oh. By the way. Jayheart has been running into things lately. He says he's fine but... I'm just not sure."

I take a breath and nod. "Okay. Thank you for telling me."

"Not like I wouldn't. I'm just upset he hasn't told anyone," she sighs, getting up and padding to the medicine cats den with me.

"Well, I am his father and you were his mentor. He probably doesn't want to worry us," I say, and hear Birdwhisper looking through the herb storage. Whitepelt pads away as I enter the den, turning to where Birdwhisper's creamy tail was sticking out. "Hey Birdwhisper. Could you take some borage leaves to Snowflight? I need to go find Flowerheart and give the apprentices some mouse bile for the elders."

"Yeah. Sure," she says, turning and pokes her head outside of the separate section of the den. She shakes the flakes of old leaves off of her whiskers before looking at me. "While you're out, could you get some more yarrow leaves? I used most of what we had for the elders earlier and haven't gotten the chance to go and get more."

"Already?," I ask. "I just refilled it last sunrise."

"A lot were going bad. We've only got about six left," she says, going back into the storage before padding out with the borage leaves.

"They just don't last like the did before," I comment, and she nods before padding out of the den.

I ready the mouse bile before there are pawsteps, and I look up to see the three apprentices, Tigerpaw, Flashpaw, and Sheeppaw, padding in. They were ten moons old, and only had a few more moons until they would be made warriors.

"Hey Moongaze," Sheeppaw says. "Is the mouse bile ready?"

"Yeah. Right here," I say, nodding to the three sticks with mouse bile soaked moss laying next to me. "Don't forget to wash your paws off in the lake with your mentors afterward. Last thing we need is you three getting sick."

"Don't worry. We won't make that mistake again," Tigerpaw says, picking up one of the sticks.

"More like _you_ won't," Flashpaw says, grinning, and laughs when Tigerpaw bats him with one paw before running outside.

I shake my head as they all run out bickering, and pad outside after them. By now the clan had calmed from the kitting, and had settled for the feast.

"Hey Moongaze. Are you gonna come and eat soon?," I hear, and turn to see Redwing standing there, a crow at her paws. I nod, and follow her over to where our four kits were already eating.

* * *

"Jayheart. Can I see you in my den?," I ask before he pads away after the feast, and he nods, following me over to my den as the others head to the warriors den.

"What is it?," he asks, stopping outside the entrance.

"Come in here," I say, waving my tail, and he pads in warily. "Do me a favor. How many knots are in this piece of wood?," I ask, pulling some bark over that I store extra moss on sometimes.

"Okay?," he says and sits, looking at the bark. He looks up after a few moments. "There's two."

"Okay. Turn to the side," I say, and he sighs but does as I say. "Tell me when I'm moving."

I stand and quietly back up a few pawsteps and he turns. "You moved."

"And so did you," I say. "Face forward, and stay that way when you tell me."

I test him for a little longer before telling him to turn to his other side. "I really don't see what this is supposed to be doing."

"I'm testing your eyesight. Whitepelt noticed you running into things a lot lately."

His ears lay flat. "I'm fine."

"Oh really? Wanna test that theory with your other eye?," I ask, and he looks at me angrily before sighing.

"No..."

"Look," I start, padding forward to sit in front of him. "You need to tell me these things. If not me, then Birdwhisper. And if not her, then anyone else who can help. None of us want you getting really hurt."

"I'm not gonna get hurt," he defends. "I'm being careful. I even asked Deadeye to only put me on daylight patrols. And it's only one eye that my... that isn't as strong as before. I can see fine out of the other one."

"I'm just worried about you," I say, and he glares at me before looking down at his paws.

"I'm not a kit."

"Yeah. Not a kit," I say pointedly, and he looks up at me again. "But you are my kit. You are Redwing's kit. You are Volestorm and Brightpelt's littermate, and you are one of Ivyfur's older brothers. We are your kin, and you are ours. We have to worry. And we have to tell each other things."

"Then tell me something," he says. "Why was everyone so upset when I was named warrior? Did they not want me to be one?"

I sigh. "No. We are all thrilled you're a warrior," I say. "There was an elder that died the night you were born, and I despised him when I was a kit, but then we were cast out and I slowly started respecting him. He, in a way, became my mentor. And you look just like him."

"I'm assuming his name began with 'Jay'."

"His name was Jayfeather," I say. "He wasn't able to be a warrior because he was born blind. When you were made a warrior, we remembered him because he wasn't able to be one."

"So, am I just a symbol of him to the entire clan?," Jayheart asks, and I shake my head.

"No. You are yourself, and we see you like that. Sometimes, though, we can't help but remember him."

"See. I remember the elders talking about him," Jayheart says. "Actually, I knew all of that already. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to be a warrior too."

"I remember two Starclan cats that came from Thunderclan with one eye who were still warriors, and Deadeye is blind in one of his eyes. You can still be a warrior with one eye. Sight isn't everything. I mean, another cat was blind the entire trip from the forest here, and Jayfeather was one of the three. It doesn't make you any less of a cat," I say.

He nods, taking a breath. "Thanks."

I just flick my tail. "Now how about you train with Deadeye a bit and see what helps him with only having one good eye. Then we can talk about keeping secrets like this." He sighs, and I laugh.

"I know, dad."

* * *

 **Tada! The beginning of this story.**

 **I forgot to say earlier, but Tigerpaw is actually my irl friend's OC that we figured out a looooooong time ago, so Tigerpaw technically isn't mine XP**

 **Also, I want to ask what you guys think is going to happen in this story. Like... what you think will happen to certain cats or if different situations will happen, and what they will do. J=Stuff like that.**

 **Don't forget to review your thoughts on the first chapter and the prologue, and if you want then go ahead and follow or favorite. A lot of effort is being out into this. Hope you all enjoy it!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter Two, Deadeye's pov

"C'mon. You just have to be a little quicker on your paws," I say to Sheeppaw as she lands where I had been moments ago, flicking my tail lightly. "Don't hesitate too long. Whoever you're fighting will have time to prepare for what you're going to do if you hesitate."

Sheeppaw spins and pounces toward me once I say that, and as I jump away she bats my tail. "Almost got him, Sheeppaw," Ravenstorm says from the side of the training area, watching her apprentice and I as we train.

Sheeppaw huffs, shaking her fur out. "I don't see why I can't be practicing my hunting with Flashpaw and Tigerpaw. Especially since there's so much more prey right now."

"More fresh-kill may be important," I start. "But if the other clans might not have the same luck we do with prey, and might come into our territory. We need to be prepared for that scenario. And your littermates will be doing this same thing on different days while you hunt with the one not doing this. You're going in turns. Nobody's left out."

"I know. I know," she says, looking down and sitting with a thump. "Battling just isn't what I'm good at."

"There's nothing wrong with that," I say. "Everyone is great at some things and not as good in another. I still can't swim, and I came from Riverclan."

"Most cats can't swim," she then says.

"You know," Ravenstorm starts, padding toward us. "Pufftail isn't the best at battling either."

Sheeppaw looks up at her in shock. "Really?"

Ravenstorm nods. "Yeah. But she is really smart, so she helps with the strategy of battles."

"Did she come up with the leaf fling?," Sheeppaw asks, and when Ravenstorm nods she jumps up excitedly. "That's my favorite move! I love how you don't need to seriously hurt who you're fighting to disorient them."

"Do you want to practice that one a bit? Maybe it'll lift your spirits and you'll do a bit better with the pounce attack," I say, and she nods, so I climb up the tree and claw some to the ground while Ravenstorm begins to explain.

"Okay. So remember that you need to kick them up higher because you're smaller..."

* * *

"She's a lot like Pufftail," Ravenstorm comments to me as we start heading back to camp, Sheeppaw jumping along ahead. "Like I said earlier, neither of them are into battling all that much, they love to hunt, and just something about their personalities are really similar."

I just tilt my head, looking forward at the apprentice. "Hmm... I don't see it."

"Well that's because you and Pufftail are mates. You don't see Pufftail the same as the rest of us."

I look at her. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing bad," Ravenstorm says. "I just mean that when you love someone, you think about what they do a bit differently. Like... Okay. I'm gonna be honest here. Nobody is a huge fan about how you just run off when you're stressed."

I flick my tail. "Understandable."

"I was talking to Pufftail, though, and she said that she understood how that's how you calm down. You need that bit of time to yourself to relax. Other clans may see it as you running away or being scared but... Pufftail made all of us realize that it's not like that at all. That's you going to think about how to fix whatever's going on, and then you come back and help."

"I... I guess I get what you mean," I say.

Suddenly my paw lodges on something and I trip, falling headfirst into a bunch of mud. I hear Ravenstorm gasp before she goes quiet and starts laughing, and get up again, shaking my head a bit.

"You are covered in mud! That was hilarious!," she laughs.

"Yeah yeah," I say, a bit of mud flying off when I twitch my ear. "What even made me- oh."

"What?," she asks, and turn to see what I was looking at.

There was a dead rabbit, but there was no evidence of injury that could have killed it. It was in a strange position, almost like it fell over abruptly and died before it could get up again. It just looked, and smelled, like a regular rabbit.

"Well... that wasn't there before," I comment, looking at it a bit closer.

"How did it even die?," Ravenstorm says, padding a bit closer. "I don't see any blood and it doesn't look like it broke a bone or anything."

"Maybe it was sick. That is weird during late newleaf though. And it doesn't smell off," I say, then look at her. "You go back to camp with Sheeppaw. I'm going to go get this mud off of me. Could you tell Skystar I'll be back soon and that I want to talk to him, Moongaze, and Birdwhisper?"

"Yeah. Sure. Have fun!," she says, then runs off.

I find my eyes drifting back over to the dead rabbit, and just as I'm about to pad away I hear Dovewing in my ear, just as she had been the past few days.

" _The sickness will destroy all_."

* * *

"Woah," Birdwhisper says as I pad into Skystar's den later, mud washed off but leaving me covered in water. "What did you do? Fall in the lake?"

"No," I say. "I tripped over a dead rabbit on the way back from training Sheeppaw and fell in a mud puddle. I went to the lake to wash off."

"A dead rabbit?," Skystar asks curiously, him and Moongaze also there. "Was it hurt? How did it die?"

I shrug. "No clue. There were no signs of blood or broken bones. And it wouldn't have been sick in late newleaf."

"Could it have starved?," Birdwhisper asks.

"I thought that too but it was really fat. If I knew what had happened to it and it was safe to eat I would've brought it back."

"Why do I feel like this meeting is more than to talk about a dead rabbit?," Moongaze then asks, head tilted sideways and slightly downward.

"It is," I say. "Dovewing has been speaking to me. Warning me. Have you guys gotten any prophecies?"

"No. None," Moongaze tells me.

"What has she been telling you?," Skystar asks.

"Every time it has been something about a sickness. 'Beware the sickness', 'prepare for the sickness', and then today..."

After a moment Moongaze speaks up. "What did she say today?"

I take a deep breath. "She said 'the sickness will destroy all'. I haven't been able to tell them to you guys since we've all been busy, but the one today made my skin crawl and I had to make sure you knew it as soon as possible."

"So, there's something about a sickness?," Moongaze asks. "It hasn't been told to any of us in a prophecy, no evidence of it has been shown until now, and it has only been told to you?"

"You believe me, right?," I ask, and he nods.

"Yeah. I was just making sure that I got it clear."

"So... what should we do about this?," Birdwhisper asks. "We don't know anything about the sickness, there's no prophecy for it..."

"The best thing right now is to just think more about it as we go on with our day," Skystar says, standing. "It's no use wasting time together when there are other things to be done. I'm going hunting with Badgerstripe. We should be around the sparse forest."

"Okay. Remember to be back for Smokekit's welcome," I remind him, remembering the ceremony we do for new kits in the clan. It had been done for all of our kits when the clan first formed and those born after, grateful for the new life making up for the few lost on the night Lightclan formed.

"I will," he says, and pads out of the den.

"I need to go gather some herbs," Birdwhisper sighs, standing. "I'll be by the marshy shore of the lake, then probably in the area closer to Riverclan territory."

"And I need to check on Flowerheart. I never got the chance to yesterday," Moongaze says.

We all pad out of the den, and while Moongaze and Birdwhisper continue padding away to do what they needed to do, I look around and spot Pufftail eating a sunhigh meal. She sees me too, and waves me over with her tail. I purr before going to join her.

* * *

 **Mysterious sickness begins.**

 **What do you guys think the warning from Dovewing mean? Does it have to do with just one clan? What is the sickness? Let me know what you think!**

 **There has always been something I've wanted to mention for this, but I always forget before I can write it down...**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter Three, Roselight's pov

"Roselight. Stop groaning," Finchheart says, reaching over the edges of our nests to bat at my tail. "You're keeping us all up."

"Sorry," I whisper. "I just can't sleep."

"Just go hunting or something," Petalspots says. "We want to sleep too."

"Leave her alone," I hear Russetspots say from across the den. "We've all had bad nights."

The others grumble but settle down, and I rest my head down again before noticing that Russetspots had stood up and was going to the entrance.

"Where are you going?," I ask him.

"Fluffheart will be back from his patrol soon, and we were going to go practice our night battling. You want to come with?"

I flick my tail, thinking about it, before sitting up. "Sure. But I'm on the dawn patrol so I won't stay up too late."

"I can tell Deadeye you were out with Fluffheart and I training. He'll understand," he says, and we pad out of the den.

* * *

I huff as all of my breath gets knocked out of me, coughing before pushing myself up onto my paws.

"You okay?," Fluffheart asks, looking down at me from the branches of the tree we were practicing on.

"Yeah. I'm fine," I say, shaking my head.

"That was some fall," he then says.

"Remember that we're in the trees. You need your claws out," Russetspots says from the next tree over.

"I hate having claws out during practice," I sigh, climbing back up the tree.

"I know you don't. I was your mentor, remember?"

"Yes. I remember," I shout over to him, Fluffheart laughing from behind me.

"Okay. Try jumping over again. Use your claws to grab the branch above him and use your momentum to swing forward into where he would be," Fluffheart says.

I nod, crouching down before running into a sprint toward the end of the branch. I look at the gap between the branch I was on and the one I was aiming for, which had to be at least three cat-lengths, before looking forward again and jumping.

I could feel how this would turn out right away. The power behind my legs combined with my speed, and the angle I jumped at just made me know. Russetspots seemed to know too.

I try not to flinch as his teeth dig into my scruff before I fall to the ground again, the entire branch swaying with the sudden weight. "Hang on guys," Fluffheart shouts, going over a few branches and jumping over a smaller gap between the trees before jumping over to us and helping Russetspots pull me up.

"Sorry about that," Russetspots says, looking at the bare and bleeding patches of skin on my scruff.

"Its fine," I say, trying to calm my beating heart. "I would rather not hit my face against a branch. This is way better than what could have happened."

"Want to go back to camp?," Fluffheart asks us. "We've been practicing a while now. It's past moonhigh."

"Probably the best. And you can get that wound treated," Russetspots says to me, flicking just below my scruff with the tip of his tail.

"It's not that bad," I say. "Just stings a little."

"Never a bad idea to get it checked out," Fluffheart says, climbing down the tree. "You never know what could happen."

"Worst case scenario, I might get a bit of an infection. I'm not too worried."

"Just go see Birdwhisper or Moongaze," Russetspots says, beginning to go down the tree once I'm at the bottom. "Even if they say it's fine, you should get some poppy seeds to help you sleep."

"Shouldn't they be left for the elders or the warriors in pain, though?," I ask. "It's just a bit of restlessness. I'll be fine soon."

"Only if you're sure," he then says, landing on the ground and padding with us as we head back to camp. "But if you're up so late again when trying to fall asleep, I'll make sure that Moongaze knows. Or worse."

I narrow my eyes at him. "You wouldn't dare."

"I'll tell Pufftail and Deadeye."

"No!," I groan, and he laughs. "They were freaking out enough when I got that cough last leaf-bare."

"Be grateful," Fluffheart tells me as we enter the camp. "They love you and your littermates a lot. I would've enjoyed my parents being so loving."

I sigh. "I know. It can be a bit too much sometimes, though."

We leave it at that, and Fluffheart immediately heads to the warriors den while Russetspots switches spots with Nightflame and Volestorm, who were on night watch, along with Needleclaw who pads out of the warriors den after a moment. I'm about to head in the den when Russetspots calls me.

"What?," I ask, padding to him.

"Try to sleep tonight, okay?," he whispers. "I know it's more than just restlessness. It'll be hard to sleep, but please try."

I look at him, laying my ears down and nodding shyly. "I will."

He flicks his tail in response and I pad pack into the den, carefully stepping over the stray tails and paws until I reach my nest. I curl up quietly, putting my head on my front paws and looking outside the mouth of the den, past the entrance to the expanse of the lake. For a while I watch the waves morph the reflection of the opposite shore and the sky before taking a big breath and closing my eyes, letting myself be carried off to sleep.

* * *

I gasp and jump up quickly when I wake up from my sleep, the remains of my dream making my fur fluff out a bit more than usual. All I could remember is slowly watching the entire clan fade into thin air until it was just me left, and a horrible stench everywhere, so thick I was coughing. The lake was dark and silverpelt also slowly faded until just the moon was left, which slowly turned a dark red color as dark silhouettes formed around me, dark laughs slowly growing in my ears.

"You okay?," I hear a tired voice ask, and spin around to see Volestorm. He was still blinking his eyes open from sleep, and sat up before stretching.

I swallow heavily, taking a big breath before nodding. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"Good," he says. "We better head out. It's sunhigh, I think."

"Already?!," I shout, and run to the entrance to see that the sun was at it's highest point in the sky. "I might've missed a patrol!"

I run out of the den, looking around until I see Deadeye talking to Firetail and Frostpelt. Firetail sees me as I run over, and flicks his tail to me, making Deadeye turn.

"I'm sorry I slept in," I say to him. "I missed my patrol. Is there anything else I can do? Do the medicine cats need help?"

"It's fine, Roselight," he says, flicking my shoulder with his tail. "Russetspots told me you were practicing your tree-fighting with him and Fluffheart last night."

"That's no excuse, though," I say, my tail drooping. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Well, you can join Sunfoot, Volestorm, and Flowerheart on their patrol. They're marking the new border again. That, or you can help Birdwhisper or Moongaze clean out their herb storage."

"Uh... patrol is fine. Thanks!," I shout, and hear them laughing as I spin around and run up to Sunfoot, who was just finishing a sunhigh meal.

"Hey. Deadeye said that I should join your patrol," I tell him, and then lower my ears to my head in embarrassment. "I slept through my morning patrol."

"Details aren't important," he tells me, standing and flicking my shoulder with his tail. "What's important is that you know your mistake and are fixing it."

"I am," I say, then hesitate. "I... I think..."

He just laughs, then looks around the clearing and stops his search. "Flowerheart! Make sure Volestorm is ready to go!"

"On it!," she shouts back, and I turn to see her get up and pad over to Volestorm, of whom was just coming out of the dirtplace. I notice she was slower than usual, and look at her belly to see it was a little swollen.

Sunfoot sighs, obviously noticing too. "I'm going to tell Deadeye she needs to go to the nursery. Her kits are making her belly swell. She won't be able to do any more patrols, border or hunting," he says, then looks at me. "Could you keep an eye on her? I know that your father was a bit hesitant about letting her come on this patrol."

I nod. "Yeah sure. I can do that."

He smiles at me and nods, then waits until the four of us are all gathered before leading us out of the barn to the new border.

* * *

 **And this is the pov of one of my favorite characters from this story.**

 **I wanted to expand the viewpoints beyond all of the TC characters, which is why this isn't one of the other six. I also have a bit more of a plan for povs in this story this time, to where it goes in cycles of five. The first three of the cycle are from the viewpoint of Moongaze, Deadeye, or Roselight, and the last two will be free viewpoints to where it can be from any character or in third person. So... yeah.**

 **Why do you think Roselight has been having trouble sleeping? I know why (obviously) but I'm still curious to know what you guys think!**

 **Anyways, until I update next, bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	6. Chapter 4

**I almost wrote Jerome in this chapter instead of Fluffheart. XD derp**

* * *

Chapter Four, Third pov

The patrols all return halfway to sundown, hunting patrols dropping off their prey at the fresh-kill pile between the elders den and the dirtplace while the border patrols disperse, the leader of the patrol going to find Deadeye to report any findings or anything else they need to report. Badgerstripe leaves her border patrol and pads over to Skystar's den, a hole in the ground of the barn, and goes inside.

"Skystar," she says, making him look at her. "Its halfway to sundown. You should report who's going to the gathering tonight."

"Oh. Right," he says, getting up and padding next to her before licking her head once. "Thank you."

Skystar pads outside, Baderstripe following, and looks around at the clan for a moment. He sees Needleclaw padding over to the nursery where Snowflight was, Smokekit taking hesitant steps up a long and flat branch. His eyes, a deep amber color were trained on Ivyfur who was sitting at the top of the plank, and they watch until the kit reaches her before cheering and congratulating him, Smokekit having a look of extreme joy on his face from the positive attention.

"Skystar," the leader then hears, and jolts back to reality to see Deadeye looking at him as he pads over. "Gathering."

"Right," he says, before standing and jumping up onto a branch, like the one Smokekit had been on, that was sticking out from two mounds of dirt in the floor of the barn. "All cats old enough to understand why difference is essential, join beneath the longbranch for a clan meeting."

Slowly, the clan gathers beneath him. He looks down at Deadeye, who was sitting almost directly beneath him, who twitches his ear to him before facing the clan.

"As you all know, the gathering is tonight. Deadeye and I have chosen who will be coming to the gathering. Those coming are Birdwhisper, Foxblaze, Badgerstripe, Whitepelt, Redwing, Sunfoot, Willowspot, Spoteye, Mudsplash, Petalspots, Pufftail, Ivyfur, Russetspots, and Tigerpaw. The rest of you will stay back at the camp. Clan meeting dismissed."

The clan disperses, those going to the gathering going to their dens to rest while those who weren't either chat in the main clearing or go out to walk around the territory. Birdwhisper turns to Moongaze before he pads away to tend to a wound that Fluffheart had gotten the day before when a rogue attacked him. "Do you think you could go get some more poppy seeds tonight? I had to give some to Finchheart for her bellyache and we were already running low."

"Sure," he says, flicking his tail. "You get some rest."

She nods to him before padding off to the medicine cats' den to sleep before they leave, and Moongaze stands before padding over to the warrior's den.

* * *

Moongaze's pov

"Gonna check on Fluffheart?," I hear Pebblefall ask before I go into the warrior's den, and see her looking at me from the side.

I nod. "Yeah." Then I look at her, noticing her staying off one paw. "Is your paw bothering you again?"

"Little bit. It's not too bad though," she says.

I look at her for a moment before twitching my ear and looking away. "Meet me in the medicine clearing. I'll be there soon."

She nods before limping away, and I pad into the den.

Fluffheart was laying in his nest sleeping. The cobwebs covering the wound he had gotten, a long trail from a claw going from his left cheek over his left shoulder to his underbelly, were beginning to soak through. I can remember how it happened, since he had been helping me collect herbs close to the Windclan border by the forest in the direction of the mountains.

I had been nose deep in some lavender, having used the last of it on Sandstripe from his fever that morning, when I heard a yowl. The rogue had run into the bushes to hide, and pounced once Fluffheart had turned away. Their claw stuck into the side of his face and went along his side, over his shoulder, until he fell in shock which made it go through his belly as well. Leafbreeze was also there, and fought the rogue off as I used some leaves from the bush to stop the bleeding.

I got her to find enough cobweb for me to seal the wound temporarily, and once we were sure the rogue wasn't returning she ran to camp. Birdwhisper, Needleclaw, and Russetspots came with her, each carrying cobweb. Birdwhisper and I covered the wound the best we could, and then we all carefully carried him back to the camp.

The nests in the medicine clearing had been thrown out the night before, the bracken it was made from breaking into small pieces. So, after Birdwhisper and I had treated the wound in the medicine clearing, we took him to the warrior's den to rest, moving his nest to the side so he could remain in a comfortable position and not be in worry of the other warriors waking him up or bumping him.

"How long has he been asleep?," I ask Russetspots, who was also in the den.

"Since before the sunhigh patrols. I figured you would come in to check on him and that you would get him food," he says, lifting his head.

"Well, I would've rather had you get the food, but that's fine," I say, then crouch next to Fluffheart. "Fluffheart. Wake up."

In a few moments he groans, then blinks open his eyes. "Moongaze?"

"Yeah," I say. "Does it still hurt?"

"Pretty bad, yeah," he says, and winches when he moves the leg that had the shoulder scratched.

"I'll give you some more poppy seeds before tonight, then," I tell him. "For now, I'll go get you some food."

"I'm not very hungry actually," he says.

"You need to eat to get better," I remind him, and he sighs. "I'll be back with a mouse. You better eat it."

* * *

Third pov

"Lightclan!," Skystar calls, and those who were going to the gathering stop talking and look at him. "It's time to go."

"Are you going to tell the clans about the rabbit?," Deadeye asks him, padding over to sit beside him as the clan stands.

"No," Skystar tells him. "Let's wait. See if the other clans have come across the same thing by the next full moon. If not, and it hasn't happened to us again, it must have just been an accident to the rabbit. No reason to show we are worried."

He then waits until the others all stand and gather behind him before waving his tail, standing and leading the clan out with Deadeye behind him and Badgerstripe at his side.

It's just a few moments after leaving the barn that Skystar hears a voice. "Skystar!" The Lightclan leader turns toward the lake to see that the Thunderclan group was passing by, the new leader Thornstar standing and looking at him as his clan passes by.

"Hey Thornstar," he says, leading his clan over to walk with the clan from the forest. "Looks like your clan has handled the past moon well."

Thornstar nods, looking at his clan which was full of cats happily chatting with the Lightclan warriors. "That would be true. Starclan gifted us this moon." He then turns to Skystar again. "We have a new queen. She came with us today, but the next gathering she will be back at camp."

"That's amazing," Skystar says. "Flowerheart finally decided to move to the nursery. The kits should be here in under a moon."

"About time," Thornstar says, flicking his tail, and they fall into a silence as they lead the way to the tree-bridge.

* * *

 **I finally have a lot more time to write things. Yay!**

 **The first gathering of the book will be in the next chapter, and I want to say ahead of time that something very important is hinted about a character next chapter. It will be very _very_ obvious, so look out for it. As well as that, I'll be updating 'The Wings Of Battle' shortly after this, so keep an eye out for that as well if you like that one.**

 **Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Go ahead and guess anything you think that might be happening in this book. For example, you could guess which character has something special about them, and what that special thing could be. A normal review is also very appreciated, if you want to that is. Also, go ahead and favorite or follow this story or me. There is a lot left to do in this book, and I hope you guys are excited for it.**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	7. Chapter 5

**Sorry for updating late. Really wasn't feeling up to updating yesterday.**

* * *

Chapter Five, Third pov

"I forgot how cool this was!," Skystar's daughter Tigerpaw exclaims as they cross the bridge to the island. Pufftail laughs from behind her.

"I didn't get to cross it until I was a warrior. Consider yourself lucky."

Tigerpaw jumps down onto the island and runs to where the other apprentices were talking, allowing Pufftail to jump down as well. She scents the air and realizes they were the last to arrive, the clan leaders already grouped at the bottom of the tree.

"I have to go meet up with the deputies," she hears, and turns to see Deadeye there.

"Right," she says, and they pad together over to the foot of the great tree, then touching noses before Deadeye joins the other deputies and Pufftail sits in the crowd.

"Let the gathering begin," Pinestar calls from the tree, causing the island clearing to quiet and the cats in the clearing to look up at the tree. "Shadowclan now has two new apprentices, Leafpaw and Graypaw, and we have finally scared off the rogues that were invading the territory with a bit of help from Thunderclan. We thank them for the help."

Pinestar then sits, and Lightningstar stands. "Windclan now has a new warrior, Nightclaw, but he is currently doing his vigil at the Windclan camp and could not come. As well as that, we have two new apprentices. Darkpaw will be training to be a warrior while his littermate Mousepaw will be training to be a medicine cat."

The Windclan leader sits, having no further announcements. Riverclan had no announcements to make, letting Thornstar stand. "Thunderclan was gifted this past moon. Our prey has been plentiful, Evepelt has kitted one she-cat, Ivykit, and the medicine cat apprentice Hazelpaw has become a full medicine cat with the name Hazelcloud. We also have one new queen, the senior medicine cat Dawnmask, who is expecting the kits of Vinepelt."

Thornstar then sits, letting Skystar stand. A chill runs through Pufftail, her tail bristling, making Sunfoot look at her since he was sitting behind her.

"What's wrong?," he asks.

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right," she says, and when she turns around to look at him she gasps, going rigid.

* * *

Back at the camp, Nightflame was keeping watch over the barn. Most cats were asleep other than the patrols, who were already checking and marking the borders. Moongaze was also awake, just padding into camp with a bunch of poppy seeds, and flicks his ear to Nightflame when she does the same.

He's just about to enter his den when there is a yowl from the warrior's den and Ravenstorm runs out. She sees Moongaze almost immediately and shouts over to him. "Moongaze! Darkpelt collapsed!"

Moongaze runs over, placing the poppy seeds down outside of the den before running inside. Spoteye was standing next to Darkpelt, of whom was laying over the edge of his nest as in he had been getting into it when he collapsed. Moongaze pads over, and sees that his eyes were open and glazed over.

"He's breathing. He just collapsed and won't react to any of us," Spoteye informs Moongaze.

"I heard him gasp too," Fluffheart says from his nest off to the side. "This isn't normal Moongaze."

"I know," the medicine cat says, and immediately after saying that Fluffheart seems to get dizzy and his head falls, eyes also glazed over.

"Moongaze," Ravenstorm says as Moongaze runs over to him. "You don't think-"

"It's the Different," he says after seeing that Fluffheart was the same as Darkpelt. He then turns to Ravenstorm and Spoteye. "Someone needs to run to the gathering. Skystar-"

"Moongaze!," Ravenstorm shouts, running over to her littermate as he goes into the same condition as the other two, collapsing onto the den floor. She then turns to Spoteye. "Run to the gathering. I know what he was gonna say. Skystar will fall."

* * *

"Sunfoot!," Pufftail shouts as he collapses. All of the cats who heard her turn in her direction, Birdwhisper running over as soon as she notices.

"He's breathing, but his eyes are glazed over," the younger Lightclan medicine cat says. "I don't-"

Pufftail feels another chill, this time feeling it further toward the center of the clearing. She jumps up and runs in that direction, getting there just as Russetspots collapses like Sunfoot, as does Mudsplash, who was with him, a moment later.

Pufftail senses something, and spins around to see Deadeye watching her. She's about to call out to him when he collapses too, and she gasps, looking up at Skystar.

"Help him!"

Just a moment after she shouts that, Skystar falls limp. The cats in the clearing gasp as he starts falling forward, a few screaming as he starts falling from the tree.

* * *

Deadeye's pov

I groan as I open my eyes, jumping up when I remember what had just happened. I turn, panting in shock, and see that Mudsplash was next to me. He shakes his head as he sits up, then glances around the clearing like Deadeye does too.

Starclan cats surrounded them, and the rest of the Different were also gathered in the clearing. Moongaze was standing next to the body of Fluffheart, the warrior panting as he tries to sit up.

"Stay down. You're weak enough," Moongaze tells him, then turns and hisses at the Starclan cats. "He's weak! He can't handle this right now!"

"He's not the only one," says a voice, and a dimmed version of Bluestar pads forward.

"Woah," I say. She didn't glow as much as she used to, looked tired, and was much more transparent. In a few moments I notice that the Starclan cats behind her were like that too, and look around us to see they were all the same way. "What's happening to you?"

"It's a long story," she says, and a moment later Skystar forms beside me. He lifts his head, blinking, then glares at Bluestar when he sees her.

"I blame you if I lose a life."

"Don't worry about that," she says. "Starclan needs your help."

"With what?," Russetspots asks.

"Every season cycle, one Starclan cat needs to quest to find a flower that we call the star flower," she says. "If we don't get the flower, we become sick in our own way. We start to fade away, and it becomes harder for us to deliver prophecies and omens and such. It also effects the lake. You may have noticed some changes."

"Are you talking about how there hasn't been any wind and how the lake had been still?," I ask, and she nods.

"Exactly. Soon there will be a lack of healthy prey." She then turns to speak to all of us. "For an unknown reason, the flower was missing from the place it always grows. There is, however, another star flower among your land. It grows in the direction of the Moonpool from the lake. We need you to go and find it, and bring it back."

"You want to send not only the leader," Mudsplash starts. "But also the deputy, the more experienced medicine cat, a warrior that can't move from one position because of a severe wound, and some of the most experienced fighters on a quest that will be extremely dangerous."

"We never said it would be dangerous," Yellowfang says, padding out from behind Bluestar.

"But there's a reason you decided to send us, isn't there?," Moongaze asks, glaring.

"It is dangerous," Bluestar tells us after a bit of silence. "Extremely dangerous. No Starclan cats can come with you at this time, since we are too weak. We can barely even keep the prey going. You would be on your own throughout the entire journey. There isn't a cat from another clan who would be able to handle it the way you would be able to."

Skystar looks at her for a few moments, as if contemplating. "And what would happen if we don't get you the flower?"

"We would fade away," Yellowfang says. "After that, the lake would start to lose life. Plants would die, including herbs, as would almost all of the prey. There would be more enemies showing up in your territories and slowly, you would all be sent into despair."

"Leaders would go back to having one life. Any wound could kill you. Even the smallest scrape," Bluestar says. "If we die, so will the clans."

* * *

 **How ominous...**

 **And yeah. Sorry again for the late update. I really didn't feel like updating yesterday. Not sure why. I'm fine, in case you guys are wondering. It was the kind of thing where you're bored and want to do something, but nothing is something you want to do. That was the feeling I had about updating. But I'm good now!**

 **So, if you didn't notice, it's Pufftail who has the special thing going on. I won't reveal what it is quite yet (though you guys might have figured it out already) or how it happened (that will be revealed in a later chapter), but it does have an important role later in the story.**

 **Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the one I will post next week. The next one holds more importance to something in the plot, and also shows what all of the Different's thoughts are about the sickness and being asked to be sent on a journey. Thanks for reading!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	8. Chapter 6

**Look! I updated on time this time!**

* * *

Chapter Six, Deadeye's pov

We all look at each other, thinking, and I sigh. Skystar and I look at each other and he nods at me, so I turn back to Bluestar. "How long until you disappear?"

"Four moons," she says.

"We will go on the journey," Skystar says. "But, if anyone who is on the journey dies, we hold you accountable. You have to be sure that they die painlessly, and with the knowledge that we will miss them. They have to know that we don't want them to die."

"I can't guarantee all of that," Bluestar begins. "But we will do our best."

Skystar nods, flicking his tail, and turns to the rest of us. "In the morning meet me in my den. We have to discuss how we will be going about this."

"We need to tell the rest of the clans, too," Moongaze says. "They would take our disappearance as a weakness in Lightclan, and you know that a lot of them still don't like the fact that Lightclan exists."

"I was just about to inform you all about that," Bluestar says. "When you wake up, Skystar, you need to tell the other clans that Starclan was sending you on this journey. That should protect Lightclan until your return, and will also warn the clans that they need to be more careful."

"Will do," Skystar says.

At that, we all lay down and prepare to return to where we were while the Starclan cats slowly disperse. I sigh, and am just about to close my eyes when I see something and sit up.

"You okay?," Russetspots asks, noticing my bristling fur.

"Uh... I-I'm... just hang on a second," I say, jumping up and running over to what I had seen.

"Wait- Deadeye!," he shouts, and I hear him run after me.

I run for a bit, following the form that had given me a feeling of dread, before jumping past some bushes into a clearing. A figure, far more faded than the rest of the Starclan cats, was hunting a mouse that was nosing some tufts of grass. They leap, landing on the mouse, but their paws pass right through and the mouse scurries away, the cat's ears lowering in annoyance.

"Pufftail?," I ask aloud.

"Deadeye. What-," he cuts off when he sees the almost invisible form of Pufftail. "Why is she here?"

"Don't worry," we hear, and Dovewing pads through the bushes. "She's alive and okay."

"Then... why is she here?," I ask her, fur on end from shock.

"Just remember her kitting. Then you'll know why," Dovewing says. "You two need to return to the gathering. The others have already left."

Russetspots nods next to me. "Right. Let's go Deadeye," he says, and we pad off toward where we had woken up.

I curl up and am about to close my eyes again when I hear Russetspots say my name. "What?"

"She said Pufftail is fine. Don't be too concerned over her or she'll know something's up," he says, and I nod, sighing and closing my eyes.

* * *

"Deadeye... Deadeye. Wake up. The others are up already."

I groan, laying still for a few more moments before my vision returns and I see Pufftail crouched in front of me. When I blink at her she gives a breath of relief and presses her head on my chin. "Hi. I'm okay."

"I know that," she sighs, pulling back. "Doesn't mean I can't worry."

I hum in agreement, lifting my head and sitting up. "Is Skystar okay?"

"Yeah," she says. "Lightningstar caught him when he was falling by her branch. He was still a little roughed up, but luckily he didn't get hurt too bad."

"Where is he?," I ask her. She nods her head toward the clearing, and I get up to follow her over.

Skystar sees me as I approach, and flicks his tail. "We need to get back to camp soon."

"You still need to tell the clans what Starclan told us," I remind him, and while he nods, running over to the tree to stand on a branch, Pufftail turns to me.

"What?"

"Attention clans!," Skystar yowls from the tree, making everyone look at him. "Starclan called the rest of the Different and I to give us a message. They are sick, and need the Different to go on a quest for a flower that they need to survive."

I hear the clans murmur uneasily, and feel my own pelt bristle from how ominous it sounded even though I had been there when they told us.

"That means that Lightclan will be missing it's leader, deputy, a medicine cat, and some warriors if not many," Skystar continues. "I must ask that you do not take advantage of this situation and attack my clan while we are gone. If we don't go, then Starclan will die as will all of the lake resources we need to survive. Slowly, all of our numbers will decrease too until there are little of us left, or none at all. We need to go for the survival of the clans."

There are a few moments of silence before Thornstar stands. "I promise you that Thunderclan will not attack Lightclan at such a time."

"I promise the same for Riverclan," Rippledstar says.

"And Windclan," Lightningstar says, and Pinestar then stands.

"Shadowclan as well."

"We hope you have a safe journey, Skystar," Rippledstar says. "Let's hope that you all come back, unharmed and safe, with the flower to save the clans."

"Thank you," Skystar says, then climbs down the tree. "Lightclan! Let's return home!"

* * *

"So... what are we gonna do first?," I ask Skystar as we journey back to the barn.

"First, I think we should decide who's going with us," he says. "Then we can figure out who will be in charge until we come back."

"We're taking others with us?," Russetspots asks from behind us. "Is that smart? There's a reason that they called us about this."

"Just because they called us doesn't mean that we can't take others," Skystar tells us. "Remember. It was more than just us when we were cast out."

"Yeah, but that wasn't a journey to save Starclan, which they said was very dangerous."

"But we'd have safety in more numbers," Mudsplash says, he and Sunfoot also with us. "If there are more of us, then it's less likely that anything will attack us."

"And what if the other clans do end up attacking the clan while we're gone?," Russetspots asks. "If we have all of our experienced warriors, then there'd be no one to protect the clan."

"The other clans promised," I say, looking back at them. "I trust Rippledstar. She supported the new clan in the first place."

"Same with Lightningstar," Mudsplash says.

"And I honestly believe that Pinestar wouldn't attack us," Skystar says. "He's a proud leader, the same as when he was the deputy. Attacking a clan with little defense would not show that. And Thunderclan is known to help those in trouble. If anyone did attack us, they would help in a heartbeat."

"If you're sure...," Russetspots says just as we start entering the barn.

"You're back," I hear, and see that Darkpelt had been waiting. "If we are going to talk, we need to talk in the medicine cats den."

"We will be talking, but I don't think we should discuss it in this group only," Skystar says.

"What?," I ask him.

"If the clan will be missing their leader, deputy, a medicine cat, and a good amount of warriors, they need to be part of the discussion," he says. "Which is why we are going to discuss this next sunhigh. Everyone needs rest to think about this. It would honestly be kinda stupid to do this without them."

"I'll tell Moongaze," Darkpelt says, and starts padding over to the medicine cats den while Skystar turns to the rest of the clan.

"Everyone get some sleep. We'll talk about this at sunhigh."

* * *

 **Huh... Pufftail is in Starclan as well as the normal clans.**

 **I wonder why XD**

 **It seems as if the other clans will keep to their own territories and not be a threat to Lightclan for the time being, but do you guys thing that they actually mean that? And what do you think will happen to the cats that go on the journey? Who will go on the journey in the first place?**

 **Thank you to anyone reading the chapter for continuing to read this! Honestly, the difference between the views that Different is _still_ getting in comparison to the views this is getting is a little disappointing... Different got almost ten times more views than Saviors did in the month of June...**

 **Of course, I'm not going to stop updating this story. I wouldn't want to leave the story unfinished for those of you who do still read it. I just needed to vent a little, because that has been on my mind for a good month now.**

 **But... yeah. Thank you for reading this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it, and bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	9. Chapter 7

**Read the bottom AN, please.**

 **(Btw, there is a kitting scene in this chapter. It's very clear where it comes, but I marked it with these '~~~' just in case. Look out for them if you don't like reading those scenes. Also, it isn't graphic or anything. It's basically how they are in the actual books)**

* * *

Chapter Seven, Moongaze's pov

"Easy Fluffheart. Easy," I remind him when he shifts in his nest and winces as I return with some goldenrod and more cobwebs. "You need to stay still."

"Sorry," he says.

"Moongaze," I hear, and turn to tell entrance of the medicine den, where I had Fluffheart moved to, to see Darkpelt. "Skystar says that we'll be talking about the journey at the next sunhigh. With the clan."

"Really?," Fluffheart asks him as I apply the goldenrod to his wound.

"Yeah. He said that since all of the Different are going, the clan should have a say in who else goes and who doesn't."

"Makes sense," I say, and then start covering his wound with cobwebs. "Are they all okay? Skystar didn't fall from the tree, did he?"

"No. He seems fine," he says. "I'm gonna get some rest."

"Go ahead," I say. "See you next sunrise." He nods to me and pads out, and Fluffheart sighs. "What's up with you?"

"How am I supposed to go on the journey when I can barely lift my head?," he asks. "I know that it'll be a while before I can even stand on my own, and we need to leave as soon as possible."

"We aren't going to leave until you can go," I tell him. "All of the Different need to go for us to find the flower. At this point, it's more than just friendship."

"Thanks for that," he mumbles, and I sigh.

"Just get some rest. That way you'll heal faster," I tell him, and he just flicks his tail, letting me go to my nest.

For a while I just lay there, staring at the wall of the den and thinking. By the time Birdwhisper had come in and fallen asleep, I was too lost in my thoughts to think about falling asleep.

'What dangers could we face-,' I begin to think, and lift my head to look out a small gap in the brambles toward the direction of the lake, illuminated by the full moon. '- that are so dangerous the other clans can't come?'

"Moongaze?," I hear someone whisper a few moments later, and jump, spinning around to look at the entrance to the den. Deadeye pads through, and notices that he had surprised me. "Sorry. I know it's late. Can we talk?"

"Yeah. Sure," I whisper, and follow him out of the den.

* * *

"Are you okay?," I ask him after a bit. He had been staring at the ground in front of us as we walk toward the lake. "You seem... troubled."

He sighs. "No. I'm not." He then looks at me. "Something... Something is going on with Pufftail."

"What do you mean?," I ask. "Is she expecting again? You know that she can't come with us if she is, and you can't stay back."

"No. She isn't expecting," he says.

We make it to the lake and I sit, Deadeye crouching down. "So... what's happening to her?"

"I was hoping you would know," he says, then takes a deep breath. "Okay. So... when we all started returning to the lake after Starclan had called us, I saw something. I went to go and check it out, and..."

He trails off. "What?," I ask.

"Pufftail was there," he finally says. "Well, not... she's alive, but... part of her was already there. She was chasing a mouse, and acted exactly like she does now."

"How does that happen?," I ask, more to myself than him.

"I know, right?," he says, sitting up and sitting properly. "I was so worried. But then Dovewing found me and Russetspots watching Pufftail- oh. He followed me. But she found us and told me that I would know if I remembered her kitting." He then looks up at me. "And... I think I know."

"Me too," I say, remembering that day clearly.

* * *

 **~~~ (Beginning of kitting scene)**

* * *

"Almost done Pufftail. Almost done," I say, pressing on the queen's belly. She yowls as another pain goes through her, and after a moment Birdpaw stands with a kit in her jaws. "That's three," I then say, feeling her belly after Birdpaw puts the kit down with the first two. "It feels like there's one more."

"You're doing so well, Pufftail," I hear Deadeye say, and see him licking her head out of the corner of my eye. "One more kit. You can do it."

"I'm so tired," she says, then whimpers when she gets another pain.

"Come on Pufftail. Don't give up," I tell her. "You're almost there."

"Moongaze," I hear Birdpaw say, and look at her. "I can't see the kit yet."

"Just hang on," I say, and start feeling around Pufftail's belly again, whispering to myself. 'Where is it? Where is the kit?'

"Moongaze," Deadeye says, and I look at him to see that Pufftail's eyes had closed.

I move from Pufftail's belly to her head, placing my ear to her chest. "Moongaze. I still can't see the-"

"Hang on," I tell Birdpaw. "Deadeye. I need your help with this."

"What?! I-"

"I know. Just start rubbing her chest like this," I say, putting my paw against her chest and showing him how. "Don't stop."

I move back to her belly as he starts copying what I was doing, and catch the exact moment that his pelt starts to bristle. "Moongaze. Her heart isn't very-"

"I know. Just do what I told you," I tell him. "Birdpaw. When you see the kit, don't wait. You need to get it out."

"But-"

"You can do it," I tell her, and she looks at me for a few seconds before nodding.

I feel around Pufftail's belly again, and finally find the last kit after a little bit. "Get ready Birdpaw," I say. She crouches down at Pufftail's tail again, and I wait for the next wave to go through the queen.

It comes after a moment, and I push on Pufftail's belly, where the kit was, at the same time. Birdpaw jumps, and I look at her to see her pulling back with the final kit.

 **~~~ (Still in kitting scene, but after the kitting is done)**

"Moongaze!," Deadeye shouts, horror in his voice. I spin around to look at him. "Moongaze, her heart stopped!"

"No no no," I say to myself, and Deadeye backs away as I go and continue rubbing her chest. It was still, and I press harder.

"Come on Pufftail. Please don't leave," I hear Deadeye whisper, him moving around to lick at her head again. "Please. Please."

"Comfort the kits, Birdpaw," I say, the kits crying out as they feel the distress in the room.

"Please Pufftail. Please," Deadeye whispers into her fur as I press on her chest again. "Don't go."

A few moments pass with no change, and I know that if that last press did nothing then she would be gone. "Deadeye. I think-"

Suddenly Pufftail takes a huge breath, and starts giving weak coughs. We all give a breath of relief, the kits starting to cry out again as the warm fur they were against starts moving again.

"Pufftail. You're okay. You're fine," Deadeye says, licking her head, then presses his head in her neck. "You're alive..."

I turn to Birdpaw. "Go get some chamomile and borage leaves. Pufftail needs them immediately." Then I look at Deadeye, who's pelt was still bristling from shock. "And some poppy seeds. I doubt Deadeye will be able to calm down for a while."

* * *

"I'm not sure that she was... supposed to live," Deadeye says. His pelt was bristling, much like it was before she was brought back to life. "What if... maybe we can change the destinies of cats. Since she died, part of her started to go to Starclan, but since you managed to bring her back-"

"That would make sense. And the part of her that had left wouldn't have been able to go back," I continue. "It would have still gone to Starclan."

"Now I just-" He stops. "What if you hadn't known what to do? What if I had been on a patrol, and didn't come back until she was-"

Deadeye goes silent, and I lay my tail over his shoulders. "But she's fine. She's alive and healthy and all four of your kits have grown into great warriors. Nothing has changed since then, except now you are a father."

"That's the thing," he says. "Something has changed. After we all got back from the gathering and settled in her nest, she rolled over to face me. She looked really scared, and when I asked her why she said-"

"What did she say?," I ask him after a few moments of silence.

"She could-" he stops to take a deep breath. "She could see Bluestar as she called us. She could see a Starclan cat outside of sleep."

* * *

 **Before anyone freaks out, I'm fine. Everything is cool.**

 **If you read my other stories or have looked at my profile recently as of putting this chapter up, you may know that, even though I said I wouldn't in the last chapter, I was debating on whether or not I would continue this story. I've put a lot of work into the almost 40 chapters for it I've written so far, and seeing nobody really seeming to be excited about what's up so far or what will be put up when they seem to really enjoy Different is a little upsetting. And so I was thinking, why continue if nobody is even reading it? (By the way, as of writing this, Saviors has gotten no views at all for chapter 6).**

 **But then I started to think about my own experiences with discontinued stories. Whenever a story that I love ends without _ending_ , something just feels wrong. It usually makes me pretty upset. Especially if I start reading the story way after the fact and I get into it, only to find out that it wasn't being written anymore. It's a really upsetting feeling, and I still feel it sometimes when I think of the story that ended without any closure.**

 **Which is why I'm continuing this.**

 **I don't know if anyone will bother reading this when I put it up, or if anyone will ever end up reading this, but I remembered a rule I made to myself when I started posting things on here. I will not discontinue a story or series unless there is some sort of closure. That feeling when something is never finished is upsetting, as I said, and I don't want to do that to anyone reading this now or anyone who ever ends up reading. My Holiday Special series was just a few one-shots, and all had their own closure, which is why I ended it. This? I have so much planned for the Different and their friends. I really hope that anyone reading this is excited to see what comes.**

 **I'm not going to give up on this.**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	10. Chapter 8

**I'm back! Sorry for the wait.**

* * *

Chapter Eight, Roselight's pov

"I'm so tired," Brightpelt yawns as we exit the barn for the sunrise hunting patrol. "Why do we have to get up so early?"

"Its a sunrise hunting patrol," Foxblaze says from in front of us, looking at us over his shoulder. "Where do you think it got it's name?"

"Ha ha. Very funny," she says.

"Funnier than most of your jokes," I put in, and she gasps while Foxblaze and Snakepelt laugh.

"As a matter of fact, my jokes are hilarious," she says to me. "Like... oh! What did the mouse say to it's friend after it escaped from an owl?"

"What did it say?," I ask, already dreading the answer.

"It said, 'That was no owl. It had eyes like a hawk!'"

She starts laughing, and I just drop my head down and start shaking it, Foxblaze and Snakepelt giving either a fake or pity laugh.

"Okay, seriously? That was the worst one yet," I tell her.

She just lowers her ears. "You used to love them when we were paws, though!"

"Sorry. After hearing them twice a day every day, not including the terrible ones you've been thinking of lately, they kinda get old."

She glares at me. "Some friend you are."

"Hey! I happen to be your best friend!," I say, shoving her with my shoulder.

She laugh and shoves me back, knocking me over, but before I can do anything to her Foxblaze breaks it up. "Okay you two. You'll scare off all of the prey if you keep that up."

"Sorry," I say, getting up again.

"We're going to hunt in the new territory. The survey patrol says that all scents of rogues and other dangers have gone," he then says. "We'll be splitting up. When the sun reaches there-" He stops to point at the sky with his tail. "-come back here with what you've caught."

We all confirm we understand and split up, Snakepelt heading toward the area of the territory that is more plains than anything else while Foxblaze pads toward some trees not far off. Brightpelt runs toward the abandoned thunderpath, and I look around before seeing the marsh and heading that way.

Once I get there I crouch, listening closely and scenting the air. Prey had been known to run into the muddy area of the marsh and would get stuck in the mud, and as it tried to get out it would make a lot of noise.

I couldn't smell anything over the smell of the marsh in general, so I just lower my head and close my eyes, listening intently. There were no sounds other than the gentle waves on the shore not far off and the sound of the river in the Riverclan territory, but I remember what Russetspots taught me about patience and wait.

A sudden sound of splashing makes me jump slightly, but I still again and listen to hear it repeating. At scenting the air I smell a bird, one that was also starting to screech in fear as it couldn't escape.

'Perfect,' I think, paying attention to where the noise was coming from and following it over the dryer patches of ground in the marsh until I spot it. It was right next to one of the small trees that had grown when the drought happened, now having soaked up the water and becoming soft and unsteady.

'Must have landed on a branch and the branch gave out,' I then think, seeing the twig floating in the thin layer of water not far from the tree and the bird. But I focus on the bird, and quietly start stepping into the marsh.

Marsh hunting has always been the more difficult kind of hunting. Any movement could either knock you off balance or scare off the prey if you don't know what you're doing, so it's usually left to warriors who are well-balanced and don't mind the smell and feel of the mud on their fur.

I happen to be one of those warriors.

"Gotcha!," I shout once I've caught the bird, giving it the killing bite to it's neck. I hear laughing, and turn to see who it was.

"I was wondering when you were going to finally pounce," Volestorm says from the solid ground at the the edge of the marsh.

"Yeah right," I laugh, grabbing the bird and making my way back. "You were laughing from what I said."

"Didn't Pufftail ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full?," he then asks me, and I whack his face with my tail as I pass, making him laugh again.

"You're lucky it's full so I don't bite ya," I joke, then bury the bird. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were supposed to be on camp guard this morning?"

"Well, I technically still am," he says, the fun atmosphere disappearing for a more serious one, and I tilt my head in confusion. "You better head back to camp."

"Why?," I ask him.

"You'll see!," he shouts, and runs toward the trees where I could see Foxblaze crouching.

* * *

'lt can't be too bad, right?,' I ask myself as I approach the barn entrance. 'I mean... He didn't seem worried. That has to be a good sign, right?'

When I enter the camp, I see cats ruffled up in excitement. Snowflight and Flowerheart were watching Smokekit play with Needleclaw, who had some moss hooked on his claw and was dangling it above the kit.

"What's happening?," I ask anyone who would listen.

"You'll want to go find your parents and littermates," I hear, and turn to see Pitchfur there. "They'll tell you."

She then turns and starts talking to Sandstripe again, and I look around the barn. After a few moments I finally spot the white pelts of Deadeye and Pufftail. They were sitting close to the nursery, and I see Larkstrike and Finchheart there too.

"What's happening?," I ask after I run up to them. Pufftail looked absolutely delighted, and the other three also seemed very happy. "Where's Willowspot?"

"It seems as if she had a secret relationship with Spoteye," Larkstrike tells me. "She's-"

There's a yowl from inside the nursery, making me jump a good tail-length into the air. Everyone nearby laughs, and I lower my ears before laughing too after a few moments.

But a few moments later I realize something. "Wait. Was that her?!"

Finchheart nods. "Willowspot is having kits!"

"She's kitting," Pufftail corrects. "We don't know how many kits yet."

"Since when?," I ask. "My patrol wasn't gone that long, was it?"

"No," Deadeye says. "She actually started kitting just a little bit ago. Around the time that Volestorm left to find everyone out on the patrol."

"Honestly, you should've seen his face," Finchheart says, jerking her head towards Deadeye.

"Of course I was surprised!," he defends. "I'm asking her if she's ready for the patrol when she just yowls and tells me that she needs Moongaze or Birdwhisper."

"But, why didn't she tell us?," I ask.

"She didn't even know," Pufftail explains. "I guess she had been mixing up the symptoms for other things."

"She was complaining about a bellyache last night...," Larkstrike says.

"I can't believe I didn't notice," Pufftail then says. "Now that I know, it seems so obvious. Especially her crabby behavior lately."

"Oh yeah. You were like that," Deadeye says to her. She just laughs and stands, stretching.

"Sometimes I miss being a queen," she then sighs.

Finchheart narrows her eyes at them. "Are you guys thinking about-"

"Nope. Not until this whole Starclan thing is over," she says.

"Got that right," Deadeye says, then turns to us. "In case you didn't know, there's going to be a clan meeting at sunhigh about our journey and how we are all going to go about it. Make sure you're there."

We all nod, and settle back into a light conversation as we wait.

* * *

 **Again, sorry for the wait. Life got hectic for a while there.**

 **Also, I know this isn't my regular update day, but I've been feeling bad about not updating this for so long, and I had probably the worst day I've had in a _long_ time, and I wanted to help anyone out who might be having a bad day as well. So, here you go!**

 **Anyways, Willowspot's kits! Her and Spoteye was yet another pairing that I came up with out of the blue, but after writing over forty chapters in this story (which, btw, is only halfway through the story [why am I doing this XD]) with that pairing in the background, I have actually come to like it quite a lot.**

 **That, by the way, is one new pairing out of five that will be showing up in some way as the story goes on XP**

 **That brings me to a fun question for you guys!**

 **What possible pairings do you think will happen later in the story?**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I'm going to update again on Saturday to try and make up some time, because there is going to be a whole year more of updating this before it's finished, I guarantee, and it is going to be _quite_ the emotional rollercoaster.**

 **But, I'll talk to you guys then!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	11. Chapter 9

**So sorry it's been so long!**

* * *

Chapter Nine, Roselight's pov

It's close to being sunhigh when I hear a small wail from the nursery and quickly look toward the entrance to the nursery. Finchheart jumps at my sudden movement, and she hisses at me. "What was that about?"

"Supercat hearing! It strikes again!," Larkstrike then says when Moongaze exits the den. Slowly, the clan notices him there and quiets until he speaks.

"One she-cat."

The clan cheers, and he turns over to us. "You can enter. Remember to be quiet though. She's tired and the kit will be scared."

"We remember," Deadeye says, referencing when Smokekit was born. Moongaze just nods, and pads over to the medicine cats den as we enter.

The light in the barn is blocked out by the thick brambles that protect the nursery, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. However, I could smell milk and could hear the kit squirming in the nest, and use that to figure out where Willowspot was until my vision adjusts.

"She's beautiful," Pufftail tells Willowspot, who I then see had her ears against her head in a nervous way. Spoteye was sitting behind her, and I catch his eye right before he looks down into the nest. I follow his gaze to see a white kit with different colored patches in the nest, squirming around to try and find the milk.

"She's adorable," Finchheart says, crouching closer, and the kit cries out.

"Move her closer to your belly," Pufftail tells Willowspot, who does as she said. "She must be hungry."

"I assume you don't have a name yet," Deadeye says, and Spoteye shakes his head.

"Not yet. We're thinking, though," he says.

"Understandable," Larkstrike says. "You didn't even know she existed until a bit ago."

I see Willowspot tense, and Pufftail licks her head comfortingly. "Don't worry. We aren't upset."

That seems to calm Willowspot and she yawns, Spoteye looking at us. "It looks like visiting time's over."

"I get that," Pufftail then says. "Get some rest Willowspot. Well done."

At that, we all pad out of the nursery into the main area of the barn. The clan all starts asking us questions about Willowspot and the kit, and it was so overwhelming I was getting a headache. After a bit, though, I somehow manage to escape the growing cluster of cats and sit a bit away, clearing my head of all of my thoughts.

"Lightclan!," I hear, and turn to see Skystar standing outside of his den. "We will have the clan meeting later today. For now, let's celebrate!" The clan cheers and begins settling down for a meal, sharing some of the prey that the patrols from the night before had gotten.

"Mousedung," I mutter.

"You okay?," someone asks me, and I see Evemist out of the corner of my eye.

I nod. "Yeah. I just left my prey by the marsh," I sigh, flicking my tail.

"Did you wanna go and get it?"

"Yeah. I'll be back soon," I tell her.

"Okay. I'll tell Deadeye where you went," she says, and pads over to where my parents were settling with a squirrel.

I pad out of camp, heading in the direction of the marsh where I had left the bird buried in the ground. Nobody else from the clan was out, so all I see on the way is the flowing grass and the occasional bird flying overhead.

Eventually I reach the marsh, and spot my pawsteps across the mud. Volestorm's was also there, so I follow them along the side of the marsh to where we had begun talking. Eventually I reach the patch of dug up dirt that my prey was in, and begin to dig it up.

* * *

Third pov

A scream echos through the territory, making the cats in the barn all lift their head to look through the holes in the roof of the barn. Deadeye stands, knowing that there was only one cat it could be.

"Volestorm. Redwing. Come with me. You too, Birdwhisper," he says urgently. The three get up and follow him to the camp entrance, following him outside and running toward the marsh as he does.

They run into Roselight on the way there, looking as if a dark forest cat had just attacked her. "I-I- I left my prey behind. I went to get it a-and..."

"Just show us where it is, Roselight," Deadeye tells her gently. She takes a deep breath and nods, heading the way she had come from.

Soon enough the patrol sees the small hole dug in the ground where Roselight's bird had been. Deadeye pads forward and looks in before turning back to the patrol and looking at Birdwhisper.

"You're gonna want to see this," he tells her, and she pads forward to look at what he had seen.

The bird didn't seem to be lifeless like it was when it was buried. It was twitching and shaking, almost as if it was in pain.

"They're in pain," the medicine cat says, looking up to the sky. "Starclan are in pain. They're still calling to us for help."

Deadeye nods, then looks back at Roselight. She looks at him with wide eyes, trembling lightly in shock. Volestorm and Redwing were trying to talk to her, but she wouldn't respond.

"Lets head back to camp," he says, covering the bird again and placing a few rocks around it in case they need to look at it again later. The deputy then pads over to Roselight, and looks her in the eyes. "Hey. It's okay. Lets just go back to camp, okay?"

The she-cat finally seems to be able to respond and nods, and while Volestorm and Redwing start bringing her back to camp, Deadeye turns back to Birdwhisper. "Have her sleep in your den tonight. She's too shaken up. I don't want her to freak out during the night."

Birdwhisper looks at him and nods, and the two of them start following the three warriors back to camp.

* * *

Deadeye's pov

"Wait out here," I tell the rest of the patrol, and once they nod I pad inside the barn. The clan notices me as I walk in, turning to look at me in question, but I just flick my tail dismissively and they look away.

I look around before spotting Moongaze, and once he sees me looking at him he waves his tail, padding toward the medicine cats den. I follow him inside, and once I'm inside he looks at me.

"There was an omen, wasn't there?," he asks.

I nod. "A bird Roselight had caught was shaking when she dug it back up. Birdwhisper said that it meant Starclan was in pain and were still asking us for help."

"We have to leave soon, then," he says, then sighs after a moment. "We can't leave without Fluffheart, though. We need him."

"I know," I say, looking around him to the back of the den where Fluffheart was resting.

Moongaze follows the way my eyes were going and sees Fluffheart. "I checked his wound before Willowspot started kitting. His wound is getting infected."

"Is he going to be okay?," I ask.

"I'm not sure," Moongaze admits. "Now that we know we can change others destinies, I'm questioning everything I'm doing. I'm worried to do anything in case I accidentally kill him..."

"You aren't going to kill him," I tell him, and he sighs.

"We can't be sure anymore." He then stands and looks at me. "Bring your patrol in. I can see how worried you are about Roselight."

* * *

 **So... yeah.**

 **The kit is here! What do you think that it's name will be?**

 **And again, sorry for the huge wait. I've been trying really hard to finish the story, but I was so sidetracked with writing it and reading the warriors series (since I've finally gotten all of the books) and life in general that I... sort of forgot to update? Whoops?**

 **Anyways, I'm gonna get back to updating this every Saturday. I've got many chapters prepared, so many that I may even have to start updating more frequently do that it won't end up taking over a year for the entire story to be out. Fun fact, I'm halfway through the story, and I've only just passed 40 chapters. Let me know if you would prefer me only updating this on Saturdays or if you would like it to be updated more often. I'd be updating on Wednesdays, if I update this more often.**

 **But, yeah! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	12. Chapter 10

**I am so unreliable. I am so sorry XD**

* * *

Chapter Ten, Deadeye's pov

"All cats old enough to understand why difference is essential, join beneath the longplank for a clan meeting," Skystar calls from where he was climbing up to his perch. Spoteye was holding his and Willowspot's she-kit by her scruff, the small kit crying out softly.

"I remember when you and your littermates were welcomed," I hear Pufftail say to Roselight, of whom was still shaken up from the omen. Roselight just crouches down, acknowledging Pufftail but not saying anything back. Pufftail sighs and catches my eye, and I flick my tail in pity before padding to my spot for the ceremony.

"As you all know," Skystar begins. "We need to discuss the journey that the rest of the Different and I need to go on. But first, we need to welcome the new life that had been given to us earlier today." He then looks at Spoteye and nods his head, letting Spoteye stand.

Spoteye pads over to the small nest a few tail lengths from the longplank and places the she-kit inside. The kit squeals at the soft feathers that lined the nest, and Spoteye touches his nose to her small head once before standing up straighter.

"Let us all thank Starclan for this wonderful new life," he says. "A new life is a promise of growth. And with growth we become stronger. Let's welcome the new life of Lilykit under the light of the setting sun."

'Lilykit,' I think, looking at the small kit before bowing my head to her like the rest of the clan. 'Suits her.' In the light of the sun, she had patches of color that almost looked like flowers.

After a few moments I open my eyes, stand and start yowling to the sky. The rest of the clan slowly join, and we yowl for a bit before I stop, padding over to Lilykit and standing behind her. "Welcome, Lilykit, to Lightclan."

The clans starts cheering, and Skystar lets them for a bit before calling for silence. I pick up Lilykit and carry her over to the nursery where Willowspot and Spoteye, whom had padded away after his speech, were waiting, giving her to Willowspot for her to carry her back into the den to their nest.

"Now we all need to discuss the journey that some of us need to make," Skystar says. "Moongaze, Deadeye, and I discussed it a bit earlier, and we all agree that it would be best if we brought some warriors with us on the journey. This journey is going to be dangerous."

'Obviously,' I think. 'That's why Starclan called the Different for help.'

"Whoever decides to go needs to be aware that you could die," Skystar then says. "This isn't like the journey we had back when we were cast out, before Lightclan existed. We had no goal, and could go wherever we wanted. On this journey, we have to go a certain way or else we will get lost. And that way will be dangerous."

"I'll go with," Emberwish says.

"Me too," Snakepelt says.

I look at Pufftail, and she twitches her ear at me before looking up at Skystar. "I'll go too."

"And me," Ravenstorm says.

"We aren't letting our littermate go without Whitepelt and I in the condition he's at now," Needleclaw says, lifting his head from his small discussion with Snowflight and Whitepelt.

"And I'll go," Redwing says.

Skystar nods. "The rest of you should stay here and protect the camp. I will be deciding who will step in for Deadeye and I until we all return."

"I have a question," Flowerheart calls from next to Foxblaze. "What about my kits' welcome? They'll be here in half a moon, and it wouldn't be right for the ones standing in for you to do it, or for them to wait until you come back. We don't even know when you will be coming back."

"Don't worry about that," Moongaze says. "We have to wait until Fluffheart is ready to travel anyways. By then you'll have either kitted already or will be kitting in the next few days. We can wait until then."

Flowerheart nods, and Skystar looks at the clan as a whole. "Are there any other questions?" The clan remains silent, and he waves his tail. "Okay. If you have any questions later, just look for Deadeye or me. Clan meeting dismissed."

* * *

Moongaze's pov

I'm sleeping that night when I hear rustling from the area that the sick or injured cats rest, and lift my head. Fluffheart was still in his nest, his chest rising and lowering in a steady pattern with his breaths.

'Good,' I think. 'The more he rests the faster his wound will heal.'

Then I look at the nest that Roselight was sleeping in to see that her fur was fluffed up, her teeth bared in a defensive way. Her claws were out, gripping the brambles the nest was made of and starting to tear them up.

I yawn and stand, going over to her and crouching down next to her. "Roselight. Wake up. You're having a nightmare."

She gasps, sitting up in her nest and taking quick breaths. She sees me after a moment and her fur flattens just a bit, but she was clearly still shaken up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you up."

"Not like you meant to," I tell her, and she nods. "Do you need another poppy seed to go back to sleep?"

She shakes her head. "I shouldn't have any more. They should be left for the other warriors or the elders."

I just watch her for a moment, and catch something in her eyes. "You've been having nightmares a lot, haven't you?"

At first she does nothing, but her eyes do widen. Then she nods. "They come every other night."

"You should've come to Birdwhisper or I earlier," I sigh, padding over to the herb storage.

"I don't need anything," she defends as I look through the herbs.

"Yes you do," I say strictly, turning to her. "Don't think that you can't get the same treatment as the rest of the clan."

"I shouldn't need anything to sleep," she mumbles as I find what I'm looking for and pad back over to her. I drop the herb in front of her, and she looks at me hesitantly. "What is it?"

"Thyme," I tell her. "It helps calm a cat down."

"I don't want it," she says. "I don't need it."

"But I say you do," I tell her. "If you can't sleep because you're too afraid to, you do need it."

She opens and closes her mouth for a few moments before letting out a breath, slumping her shoulders and dropping her head down. "I'm so tired of all of my nightmares. I just didn't want to need anything to actually sleep okay for once."

"Why?," I ask her, sitting down in front of her nest.

"I hate the feeling that I'm..."

"Different?," I ask, and she looks up at me. "Our clan treasures difference over a lot of things. Don't be scared to be different than the others."

"Nobody else has to have herbs to sleep though," she says.

"Some do," I tell her, and she tilts her head slightly. "Chew on the thyme for a bit, then spit it out before you go to sleep. If you need anything just wake Birdwhisper or I."

She nods, sighing, and lays down again. I wait for her to start chewing on the leaf of thyme before padding back over to my nest and laying down. Once I'm settled, I rest my head on the side of my nest, keeping an eye on Roselight and Fluffheart as Roselight starts falling asleep.

After a while, her breathing slows to a steady pattern and I knew she had fallen asleep. However, I stay up a bit more, continuing to keep my eye on them until my eyes start to droop and I fall into a peaceful sleep as well.

* * *

 **So so sooooooo sorry. Been working on other things.**

 **Hey! At least it wasn't a month this time!**

 **So, like, I'm actually talking to a friend, so I'm gonna keep this short.**

 **The cats on the quest have been chosen. They are just waiting for a bit so that they can travel more quickly, and not worry about being slowed down.**

 **For real this time, (though I know you guys probably don't trust me) I will talk to you guys again in a week!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	13. Chapter 11

**I have no excuse for how long this took this time**

* * *

Chapter Eleven, Moongaze's pov

"It looks like she's growing up fine," I tell Willowspot as I check on Lilykit. "I wouldn't worry about her not opening her eyes yet. All kits take different amounts of time to be ready to do that."

"And you're sure?," she asks. "I mean... she was kitted three days ago."

"I'm positive," I tell her. "Some kits take a moon to actually open their eyes. She has a while yet before we should start to worry."

Willowspot takes a deep breath. "Okay. If you're sure."

"I am. I'll be back with some borage leaves in a bit," I tell her, and pad out of the den.

Once I give Willowspot the borage leaves I leave the nursery again, and see Birdwhisper leave the medicine cats den. She sees me as I pad over and waits for me to meet her outside our den.

"Is he any better?," I ask her since she had been checking Fluffheart's wound.

She takes a deep breath. "I think the infection is going away. The swelling is also going down, and he can lift his head without wincing."

"That's great," I say, flicking my tail. "How far can he sit up?"

"I haven't tested that yet," she says. "I wanted you to be there in case he tries to push himself too much. You never let him get away with that."

"Got that right," I say as we pad into the den.

Fluffheart looks up at us as we enter, looking bored. He watches as I pad over ad sniff the herbs covering his wound.

"Ready to try sitting up?," Birdwhisper asks him.

"I've been ready for a while, honestly."

"You've been like this for less than a quarter moon," I laugh.

"It felt like forever, though" he groans, and we laugh.

"Okay. Put your paws underneath you," I say when I stop laughing.

Fluffheart nods. "I know what to do."

He slowly moves the paw of good shoulder underneath him. Birdwhisper and I watch carefully as he turns, and when he winces I see Birdwhisper ready to stop him. I hold my tail in front of her before she moves forward, though, and she immediately lets me take control over the situation.

"Slowly, Fluffheart," I remind him. "You still haven't healed completely. We don't want the healed parts to reopen."

"I know," he says. He stops for a moment before putting the paw to his bad shoulder under him and starting to push himself up.

"Easy," I say, padding a bit closer. He nods, and leans on my shoulder as he pushes himself up. Eventually he manages to sit up completely, panting from the effort, so I turn to Birdwhisper. "Go get a few burnet leaves."

"Got it," she says, and pads over to the storage.

"I can sit up. That's a good sign, right?," Fluffheart asks me as he eases himself down again.

"It's a great sign. It'll still be a while until you're well enough to travel, but sitting up is a start," I tell him. "Eat the burnet leaves and I'll get you some fresh-kill."

Once Birdwhisper brings the leaves to him I exit the den. The sunrise patrols were just returning, and the border patrol leaders were going to report to Deadeye while the hunting patrols drop off their fresh-kill at the fresh-kill pile. I pad over to the fresh-kill, hopeful that some of the prey was still slightly warm since it is better for helping cats to heal, and run over to Russetspots as he places his prey down.

"Hey. Any of that fresh-kill still warm?," I ask.

He nods and takes a mouse from the prey he had just put down. "That for Fluffheart?," he asks.

I nod, picking up the mouse by its tail. "Yeah. He's healed enough that he can sit up with a bit of help. Birdwhisper are going to keep giving him some burnet every sunrise, and hopefully he'll be fit enough to travel within a half-moon."

"That's fantastic!," Russetspots exclaims, and pads with me back to the medicine cats den. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Well, not right now, but pretty soon we're going to need to get him walking again," I say over the mouse's tail. "It's going to be pretty rough the first few times, since he hasn't put any weight on his legs since he got hurt, so you could help him out by letting him lean on you."

"I can do that," he says, stopping outside the den as I do. "Tell him I say good luck."

"Will do."

* * *

"We need some more burnet leaves soon," I mention to Birdwhisper, looking through the stock of herbs we have. "That, and we're running low on cobweb."

"Yeah, cause you've been using it all on me," Fluffheart jokes from where he was laying.

"Hey, we had to use some on Snakepelt when that badger showed up. Don't you forget that," Birdwhisper reminds him.

His ear twitches, and he sits up, doing so with ease after the past quarter moon of strengthening since the first time. "A lot of it is still for me though. You can't deny."

"And we will continue to use it until you don't need it anymore," I tell him, leaving the herb storage and beginning to pad to the exit of the medicine den.

Just before I exit, Snowflight pads in. Her eyes were wide in urgency. "Flowerheart's started kitting."

"I've got it this time," Birdwhisper says, rushing to the herb storage.

"You sure?," I ask her.

She nods to me, herbs in her mouth, and passes me to follow Snowflight out of the den.

"Isn't this the first time she's helped a queen kit as a full medicine cat?," Fluffheart asks.

I shake my head. "She had been helping Snowflight, but there was a minor complication and I had to step in. She knows how to fix it now, so hopefully she'll be the one to bring the kits into the world."

"Oh yeah," he says, his ear twitching. "I remember now." Then he pauses. "How much longer until I can start walking?"

"Well, you've been stretching out your legs, right?," I ask him, and he nods. "Maybe next sunhigh. Let's give your wound one more night to heal before we put any stress on it."

"Okay," he says.

"I've gotta go and get some more thyme and burnet," I tell him. "Will you be okay or do you want me to send a warrior in here to keep you company?"

"Well, I'd be fine without, but I've been wanting to talk to Russetspots anyways," he says. "Could you send him in?"

I nod. "Yeah. I'll make sure he's coming," I tell him, and pick up some extra beech leaves we had stored before padding outside.

Once I'm outside, I notice that some of the clan had already gathered, and look around until I spot Redwing. She sees me as I pad up, and waits for me as I put the leaves down.

"Could you send Russetspots to my den when he returns from his patrol?," I ask her. "Fluffheart wants to talk to him since he hasn't in a while, and I'm going to collect more herbs."

"Sure," she says, then licks my nose. She laughs when I sneeze because of it, and I just grin before bumping her head with mine. "Be safe."

"I will," I tell her, then pick up the beech leaves and pad out of camp.

* * *

It's late at night when Birdwhisper finally pads out of the nursery. She faces the clan, clearly happy. "Two kits. Both toms."

The clan cheers in victory, and after a few moments Skystar calls for silence. "We will have the welcoming in the morning. Everyone go and get some rest before tomorrow. Who knows what could happen," he says.

The clan does as he says, slowly dispersing and heading to either the last patrol for the day or to their dens. Snakepelt and Petalspots head to their night watch spots, and I watch as the last patrol leaves the barn. Not long after that, a figure sneaks out of the warriors den and I stand, waiting for them to come over to me.

"I figured you might need some tonight," I say, and lead them into the Medicine Cat's den.

"I don't know," Roselight, the one who came out of the den, sighs. "I've just... I've got a bad feeling."

"Could have to do with the fact that a good part of the clan is leaving soon," I say, and she shrugs as I go to get a thyme leaf for her.

"Thanks," she says as I place the leaf in front of her.

"It's no problem," I tell her. "You know what to do. Get some rest tonight, okay?"

Once she nods I head back toward my nest and curl up, closing my eyes. Roselight eventually pads out of the den, and not long after that I finally fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

 **Poor Roselight.**

 **Okay, so the only excuse I have for not updating any of my stories for some months is that these past months have been busy. I've also been trying to work on Similarly Different a whole lot as well as finish all of the chapters to this story, and I may or may not have yet _another_ story in the works. But, overall, I really have to apologize for how unreliable I am for updating. I do love to write and be super creative, I'm just bad at actually putting what I've done out there. I always have been and I probably always will be. It's just something that I need to work on.**

 **Now that that's out there, I want to know if you guys would want another story in the Different universe, or if you guys would be okay with me leaving it at two stories. I know that it's very early to be asking this, considering that this is chapter eleven out of what will likely be close to eighty (and yes, it will likely be that long. I'm close to chapter seventy right now), but I just wanted to know.**

 **Right after this is uploaded I'm going to be working on Similarly Different, and this next episode is one that I think that everybody will enjoy, so you should definitely check that once it comes out. I may have it done by tonight, even, so keep an eye out for it!**

 **Anyways, thank you guys for reading this chapter. Sorry again for not updating, but I'm going to try and get better at actually uploading what I have done, so hopefully the next chapter will be out soon. Check out all of my other stories if you want and all that stuff! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	14. Chapter 12

**Filler chapter, but some good info and a fun moment in it.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve, Deadeye's pov

I wake up to cats sounding very happy and yawn, lifting my head and shaking it to get rid of the last of the drowsiness. There weren't many cats left in the den, most already out on patrols or in the main area of the barn.

There's more sounds from outside the den, making me get up and stretch out. The only other ones in the den were Roselight, Petalspots, and Snakepelt, all still fast asleep. To not wake them, I quietly pad to the entrance of the den before going outside.

"You're doing great," I hear, and turn to see that Moongaze and Birdwhisper were watching Fluffheart as he slowly walks around the clearing, leaning on Russetspots' shoulder.

"It looks like he's way better," I say to Moongaze as I pad over, and he nods.

"The infection is gone and there was no swelling this morning. I'd say we can leave in another few sunrises," he tells me.

I take a deep breath. "Right. We have to leave."

"I know you're not looking forward to having to leave the clan again," he then tells me. "You've been pretty silent about the entire situation since we had the clan meeting about it."

"Well, I'm not exactly excited for it," I admit, sitting. "I don't like that our clan is being put in danger again."

"You don't have to be," he says, then looks back to where Russetspots and Fluffheart were. "Okay. That's enough for now. We can do this again this dusk."

"Thank you," Fluffheart says, panting slightly. He looked like he was in a bit of pain every time he moves his injured shoulder, and I get up to pad at the opposite side of him than Russetspots just in case.

I see his wound before they help him lay in the medicine clearing. It was mostly healed, but occasionally there would be a part that hadn't sealed yet. Luckily, it didn't seem severe, and the entire wound looked far better than when they had returned to camp the day he got it.

"It definitely looks better," I say.

"And it feels better," he says.

"Which is a great sign," Moongaze says as Birdwhisper pads off to check on Flowerheart and her two kits, Alderkit and Gingerkit.

"Warriors coming through!," we hear, and suddenly the two older kits, Smokekit and Lilykit, jump out from the nursery.

"Sorry Birdwhisper," Smokekit says when they almost run into her. She just flicks her ear and enters the nursery, and the two kits look around the clearing.

"Lilykit has Pufftail's eyes," Firetail says from not far off.

"Sure does," I say, seeing the kit's bright blue eyes.

Smokekit and Lilykit start chasing each other around the clearing, darting around the few warriors hanging around. They eventually run over to Nightflame and run in circles around her, making her stop cleaning her fur to watch them as her whiskers twitch in amusement.

"Lilykit! Where'd you go?!," Willowspot calls, exiting the nursery.

The kit squeals, running away from Nightflame in my direction and hiding behind me. "Don't tell her I'm here."

Moongaze, Russetspots, and Fluffheart laugh as I do, and I curl my tail around Lilykit. "Bad mistake. You're mine now."

"No!," she laughs, and squirms in the light grip of my tail. She manages to escape and darts around me, but I paw her closer, holding her on her back with my paw on her belly and lightly shaking her back and forth.

Lilykit's squeals of delight carries all the way to Willowspot, who turns in my direction, sees me playing with Lilykit, and calms.

"I've got ya," I growl playfully as she starts batting at my paw.

"Not if I have anything to do about it," Willowspot says, padding up.

"Willowspot! Help!," Lilykit yells.

Willowspot flashes a paw out, scooping Lilykit out from underneath my paw, and pulls her closer. "What are you doing outside the den? Especially without permission or supervision."

"I was with Smokekit!," she defends, and I purr in amusement.

"I told you not to worry," Moongaze says to Willowspot. "She just took her time to open her eyes. She's getting into just as much trouble as her denmate."

"Who are you?," Lilykit asks Moongaze.

"That's Moongaze," Willowspot says. "He's one of the medicine cats, the ones who keep the clan healthy and translate the messages from Starclan."

"Are you a medicine cat too?," she then asks me.

"No," I say. "I'm Deadeye, the clan deputy. I organize the patrols and help Skystar with important decisions about the clan."

"Like what?"

"Like what to do with rascals like you when they get themselves in trouble," I say.

"Deadeye is actually my father," Willowspot tells Lilykit. "My littermates and mother are probably out on patrol, though." She looks up at me. "Are they?"

"Larkstrike and Finchheart are on border patrols right now, and Pufftail is leading a hunting patrol, but Roselight is here," I tell her. "She's still sleeping."

"Good," I hear Moongaze mumble, and turn to him.

"What? Why?," I ask him.

"Uh..." He stutters for a response before sighing and standing. "Come with me."

I follow him into the medicine cat's den, and we sit once we're inside. "So?"

"There's something that a few of us haven't told you, and it has to do with Roselight," Moongaze says.

"Does it have anything to do with something Willowspot has just gone through?" He shakes his head. "Is she sick?"

"Well, not necessarily," he tells me. "When she slept in here that one night, she woke up from a nightmare. I gave her some thyme to calm her down, but before she actually took it she told me that she'd been having nightmares a lot."

I sigh, hanging my head. "Out of all the things to get from me..."

"She didn't necessarily get it from you," he reminds me. "You've only been having them since Pufftail nearly died and Finchheart almost wasn't kitted. Her's has been happening since..."

"She was a kit," I finish for him, and he nods. I remember how, in the six moons before she and the other three were apprenticed, I would occasionally sleep in the nursery with Pufftail and the four of them so that I could calm Roselight down and Pufftail could sleep through the night. My nightmares are from something that happened, while her's are natural. "I didn't know it was that bad..."

"Russetspots and Birdwhisper are the only other ones that know, and I think I'm going to tell Volestorm to watch out during the night in case she ends up having one," he tells me. "Birdwhisper has been giving her thyme if I'm not able to when she needs it to sleep, and Russetspots came up to me last sunrise and asked me if I had been giving Roselight anything so she could sleep. He's known since the first moon she was apprenticed, since she would be more tired in the mornings than the other apprentices, and noticed she had been a bit more..." He pauses. "... Lively lately."

"Her nightmares couldn't mean anything, could it?," I ask him. "Maybe it was an early sign that this would happen, and we just hadn't figured it out?"

"If it was an early sign, then Starclan must be able to travel in time. They would never have known back then," he says. "It's just her."

"Do you know what she has nightmares about?," I ask him. "Did she tell you?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. Just that she has them. If I know anything though, the ones lately probably have to do with the journey that were all about to go on."

"But she isn't even going."

"But you and Pufftail are," he tells me. "She's always been more reliant on you two. The danger in the journey that we'll be going on probably isn't helping her nightmares at all."

He stands, padding over to the herb storage while I sigh. "I wish there was something I could do to help her."

"Right now, there isn't," he tells me. "Just make sure that she knows you will all be as safe as possible, and that should hopefully help her nightmares a lot."

"I hope it will," I say, standing. "I'd better make sure that Foxblaze knows what to say for Alderkit and Gingerkit's welcoming."

"Okay," he says. "Could you send Birdwhisper over here too? We need to talk about Fluffheart's treatment now that he's able to walk for a bit."

"Got it."

* * *

 **Tada chapter 12**

 **I didn't realize it had been a couple weeks since I updated. Huge apologies.**

 **But yeah! The chapter where they leave is coming up quickly, considering Fluffheart is getting so much better. I'm not gonna say when exactly it is gonna be, but let's just say that if my memory is right it will be up within the next month (as long as I remember to update more often).**

 **Also, how did you guys like the moment where Deadeye played with Likykit? Little behind the scenes sort of thing for you guys, but originally this story was not supposed to be the sequel to Different. Originally, the sequel was supposed to be right after Different of them settling in as a new clan, aka Pufftail hadn't had Roselight, Larkstrike, Willowspot, and Finchheart yet. You guys never got to witness Deadeye as a father, and I actually didn't either considering I didn't get that far before deciding to make this one.**

 **But fear not! There will be more kits (not necessarily from Deadeye and Pufftail) in the future!**

 **Also, one last question for anyone reading this. I can't change the length of the chapters in this story considering it is structured, but how would you guys like it if the chapters were posted twice a week rather than once? Even with updating this every weekend, it's not gonna be completed for you guys for another year. I wanna get it out to you guys as soon as possible.**

 **Anyways, thank you all for reading! Please let me know what you think of anything! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	15. Chapter 13

**What's this? An on-time update?**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen, Roselight's pov

" _You shouldn't have come!_ "

I gasp, my eyes opening and spinning around. Dark trees surround me, casting shadows so dark I couldn't even see two tail lengths in front of me.

"Mom! Dad!"

" _They aren't here!_ ," the voice shouts at me again. " _You put them in danger! It's all your fault!_ "

"No I didn't," I wail. "It's not my fault..."

" _But it is, don't you see?_ ," it asks me. " _You let them leave. You decided you were too important to be put into danger. You're the reason they're dead!_ "

"No!," I cry. "They can't be!"

" _Stop lying to yourself Roselight! It's all your fault!_ "

"No!"

" _It's your fault, Roselight!_ "

"No! Stop it!"

" _Roselight!_ "

"It's not my fault," I whimper, collapsing to the ground.

" _Roselight. Wake up. It's okay._ "

* * *

"Hey. It's okay," Volestorm says to me as I wake up, taking huge breaths. "It was just a dream. You're fine."

"Wh-... Wh-Where's Pufftail and Deadeye?," I ask him, trembling. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine," he tells me, sitting next to my nest. "Just focus on calming down, okay?"

I drop my head onto my nest, covering my eyes with one paw, and try taking deep breaths. Volestorm lays his tail across my shoulders, continuing to comfort me until I am finally calm again.

I sit up, his tail falling from my shoulders, and look at him. "Um... thanks..."

"No need to thank me," he tells me. "The welcoming ceremony for Gingerkit and Alderkit will be starting soon. Wanna watch?" I nod, standing, and shake out my fur once before following to the entrance of the warriors den.

The last patrols were just then returning, while Willowspot and Snowflight were watching Smokekit and Lilykit play by the grass that was slowly taking over the barn floor. I see Pufftail bringing out one of the small nests to put the kits in, and then see Deadeye listening to the leaders of the border patrols about what they saw, and calm slightly at the visual knowledge that they were okay.

"Roselight!," I hear, and look over to Willowspot to see her looking at me. "Come meet Lilykit!"

I pad over, leaving Volestorm at the entrance of the den to go over to the queens and kits. Willowspot stands when I reach them and looks over at Lilykit and Smokekit.

"Lilykit. Roselight is here."

The kit slows down her run after Smokekit, looking at Willowspot then to me, and then runs over to us. "You're Roselight?"

"Yeah," I say, then turn to Willowspot. "Who else has she met?"

"A good part of the clan. The only ones she hasn't met are the ones who returned from the patrols just a bit ago. I can introduce them after the welcoming anyways, so I'm not too worried about it," she tells me, then narrows her eyes at me like she sees something. "Hey Lilykit. Go ahead and go play again."

Lilykit nods, and runs back over to Smokekit.

"What?," I asked as she gives me a look.

"Are you okay?," she asks me.

"Why?"

"Because you slept in, and you only do that when you're stressed out."

I look at her in silence, and she tilts her head in a way that tells me she knows she's won, so I sigh. "Fine..."

"Knew it," she gloats, and sits. "So?"

"I'm... freaking out about that journey mom and dad are going on," I admit. "Skystar repeatedly said it was dangerous. What if something happens and they-"

"Nothing is going to happen to them," Willowspot tells me. "They've been through it before, and they're just fine."

"Well, yeah but-"

"All cats old enough to understand why difference is essential, join beneath the longplank for a clan meeting," Skystar yowls, cutting me off, and I sigh, padding away from the queens and kits.

"This past moon has been very good for Lightclan," Skystar starts. "Two kits have already been welcomed to the clan, and we have two more to welcome today."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Foxblaze holding Gingerkit, the light ginger tabby squirming in his grip, while a bit behind him Firetail was holding Alderkit. The deep ginger tom's fur stood out clearly against the elder's white fur. They carry the two kits to the small nests set up, placing them inside gently before Firetail pads away and Foxblaze stands behind them.

Eventually the welcoming is over, and Foxblaze and Deadeye take the two kits back over to the nursery where Flowerheart was waiting. I stand, looking around the clearing, and see Russetspots watching me.

"Need something?," I ask him.

"Just wondering if you would want to help me with training Tigerpaw," he asks. "I need to teach her partner battling."

I shrug. "Why not?"

* * *

"Hey," Brightpelt suddenly says as we are eating fresh-kill that sunset.

"What?," I ask, then take a bite from my sparrow.

"What do you get when a dove eats a frog?," she asks.

I sigh as does Ivyfur, Jayheart and Leafbreeze laughing at our lack of enthusiasm. "What do you get?"

"A dog," she says, a huge grin on her face.

"See, I would say that that was your worst joke," I tell her. "But, honestly that one about the mouse and the owl is still the worst."

"Oh yeah!," she shouts excitedly, turning to her littermate, younger sister, and our other friend. "What did the-"

"No!," we all shout, and she laughs, us slowly joining.

"Fine. Fine. You guys are no fun though."

Our laughter is cut off when suddenly Emberwish pads through the entrance, Windclan warrior Crowtail padding behind her. Emberwish leads Crowtail to where Skystar was eating with Badgerstripe and their kits, and we watch as Crowtail starts telling Skystar something.

"What are they saying?," Leafbreeze asks me.

"Just because I have better hearing than the average cat doesn't mean that I can hear super far away," I remind her.

"Please?," Ivyfur asks, and I sigh, starting to listen.

"What I'm saying is we need one of your medicine cats to come and train Mousepaw, just the essentials, until you have to leave," I just barely hear. "Otherwise, we have no medicine cat."

"Whistlewind left?," I ask myself.

"What?," Jayheart asks.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Skystar begins. "I will need to ask the clan, since we have been with two medicine cats for many seasons, but I am okay with it."

"Correction," I start. "Whistlewind died."

"What about Mousepaw?," Leafbreeze asks. "He's only been an apprentice for a moon."

"They want one of our medicine cats to go and train him for a bit until we leave so that they will be able to survive until he can be trained completely. Skystar's okay with it."

"Well...," Brightpelt starts, getting cut off when Skystar calls a clan meeting. "We were kinda like that in the beginning, weren't we? I mean... Moongaze was the only one with any medicine cat knowledge, and that's only because Jayfeather was teaching him."

"But he also had Starclan's help when he did become a medicine cat," Jayheart points out. "Starclan won't be able to help Mousepaw. Not right now, anyways. They're too weak and he probably doesn't have a connection to them yet."

"You may all have noticed the Windclan warrior Crowtail here," Skystar starts, waving his tail to the warrior standing below. "There has been an accident involving their medicine cat, Whistlewind, and he is no longer with the clans. Other than Mousepaw, who has only been trained for a moon, they have no medicine cat, and has come to us to ask for help. They ask that one of our medicine cats go to Windclan until we leave on our journey to train him so that they will be able to survive if anything bad happens."

The clan starts whispering among themselves, and Skystar waits for silence until he continues.

"I am okay with this," he says. "But, I do not want to leave the opinion of all of you out of this. If we send a medicine cat, we will be sending Birdwhisper. We will be one medicine cat down, however Moongaze is experienced enough to help us if we need it."

"If Windclan needs our help, we need to help them," Ravenstorm says after a small silence. "We didn't come back and become a clan just to turn our backs on them."

"I agree," Russetspots says.

"Me too," Frostpelt says.

Slowly, the entire clan agrees and Skystar looks at Birdwhisper. "Until we leave, Birdwhisper can come to your camp and help out. But when we leave, she must come back and take care of our own clan."

"Thank you," Crowtail says to us, dipping his head.

Skystar dismisses the meeting, joining with Crowtail and Birdwhisper as well as Snakepelt and Emberwish who were escorting them, and padding to the entrance. Spoteye runs up to her and they exchange goodbyes before Crowtail, Birdwhisper, and the escorting warriors leave.

"I hope they don't do anything to her...," Leafbreeze says, her tail flicking. "If I remember correctly, Windclan weren't the most excepting ones..."

"But Lightningstar is the leader now," Brightpelt says. "I remember asking Snowflight why they were cast out, and she told me why. She said that Lightningstar was more excepting than the others were."

"Still. Some warriors weren't," I say quietly.

We are silent at that, until Ivyfur stands. "We need to get to our patrols."

"Roselight and I don't have any. We're on night guard," Leafbreeze says, and looks up at the darkening sky as we sit up. "We should probably get to our spots."

They say good luck as we move to our spots, and slowly the patrols leave until it is just us left in the clearing as well as Starclan above and the shrinking moon.

* * *

 **Yay I finally updated on time after months!**

 **So... yeah... Whistlewind died. Luckily they don't have to search for a new medicine cat since Mousepaw was already chosen to be the apprentice, so that made their situation easier.**

 **I don't have anything else to say for this chapter, really, except for the fact that I finally passed a point in writing the story that was giving me major writers block. The story is coming together nicely, and I really hope that you guys end up liking it.**

 **One last thing, though. Don't forget to let me know if you would like me to update this twice a week rather than just once. I feel like it would help me remember to update more often, but at the same time I don't want you guys to have to worry about catching up if you don't get the chance to read the chapters for a bit.**

 **Anyways, thank you guys for reading! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	16. Chapter 14

**Sorry for the delay! Time got away from me.**

* * *

Chapter Fourteen, Moongaze's pov

"I have some good news," I say, watching Fluffheart pad at a reasonable speed around the clearing with Whitepelt at his side just in case. "As long as your wound doesn't reopen, we can leave within the next few sunrises."

"Really?," he asks me.

I nod. "Have Whitepelt help you down to the lake so you can swim around and help strengthen your legs further, then come back to camp at around sunhigh or a little before. I'll tell Deadeye and Skystar."

They pad away and I stand, going over to where Skystar was telling Badgerstripe how to run the camp until we return from the journey. We had chosen her as the temporary leader and Foxblaze as the temporary deputy, so they were both being taught how to perform in their roles.

"Moongaze," Skystar says, looking at me. "How is Fluffheart?"

"Great," I tell him. "We should be able to leave in about two sunrises as long as his wound doesn't reopen."

"That's great," Skystar says. "I'll tell Deadeye to let the traveling warriors rest more until we leave."

"Who should be in charge of the rest of our kits' apprenticeship?," Badgerstripe asks him. "Only Flashpaw has a mentor that is staying."

"I was going to talk to Deadeye about that at sunhigh, actually," he says. "I was thinking that Nightflame could mentor Sheeppaw and either Foxblaze or Spoteye could mentor Tigerpaw. I want to make sure that he thinks that works and that whoever we choose knows though."

"When will we go and get Birdwhisper back?," I ask him.

"Probably tomorrow at sunhigh, if we do end up leaving when you say we will," he tells me, and stands. "I'm going to go and find where Deadeye is, and maybe catch some prey for the clan. I'll be back soon."

I nod to him, letting him run off outside, and look at Badgerstripe. "Any idea where Pufftail is? I wanted to talk to her."

"I think she's out hunting or-"

"Kit incoming," we hear, and turn to the entrance to see Pufftail, Petalspots, and Snakepelt pad through. In Pufftail's jaws was Lilykit while Petalspots was holding Smokekit, both kits looking slightly ashamed while Pufftail looked disappointed.

Willowspot and Snowflight run over to them, taking their kits from the two warriors and telling them that it is never okay to leave the camp.

"That sounds familiar," Firetail comments from where he and the other elders were talking. Pufftail ducks her head in embarrassment, but straightens when she sees me looking at her.

"Need anything Moongaze?," she asks me, padding over.

I nod. "Come to my den. We need to talk."

I pad away, her following me until we are inside the den. Then I turn and sit, he continuing to stand. "Deadeye told me that you said something a while ago about the night of the gathering."

She lowers her ears and looks at the ground, sitting as well. "Yeah... I could see Bluestar calling all of you."

"Do you know why?"

"I thought that maybe it had to do something with being half clan, but no other half clan cats could see them as far as I knew," she tells me, looking at me once again. "Do... Do you know why I can see Starclan?"

"Deadeye and I discussed this," I tell her. "We think that maybe, since us and the rest of the Different weren't originally cats, that maybe we can change cats destinies. We think that maybe-" I stop to take a breath. "Maybe you were supposed to die during your kitting. Since we are in the Different, we could bring you back."

"But how do you know that's the case?," she asks me.

"Deadeye saw you in Starclan," I tell her gently. "You couldn't touch anything but the ground and trees, but you were there. Obviously, you're still alive, but part of you went there before I brought you back at your kitting."

She shivers. "That was something I'll always remember."

"Have you seen more Starclan cats since then?," I ask her.

She shakes her head. "None. And none before then too."

"Okay," I say.

"If..." She pauses. "If I'm partly in Starclan, and I can see Starclan cats, why can't leaders see them if they've lost a life?"

"I'm thinking it's because you're a warrior," I tell her. "Leaders, deputies even, have a bond with Starclan cats. Warriors don't have that same bond. The bond that they have might not let them see Starclan, like with medicine cats. Warriors, since they don't have that bond, can see them if they have the same case as you."

She tilts her head. "Because that totally makes sense..."

I pause too, thinking about it. "Does seem a bit backwards, now that I think about it... "

She laughs and I join her before she stops. "Was that all we needed to talk about?"

I nod. "As of now. Go ahead and relax after your patrol. You'll need it for when we finally leave."

* * *

Third pov

"I can't believe they have to leave today...," a voice says through the quiet of the early morning. Roselight, who had been asleep in her nest in the warriors den, stretches and opens her eyes. She, Larkstrike, Volestorm, Evemist, and Ivyfur were all awake inside the den while a few warriors were sleeping, Emberwish and Mudsplash included.

"Sorry," Ivyfur says, noticing that they must have woken Roselight up.

"No. Don't be," she says, yawning. "I want to be able to say bye."

"Are you not worried?," Evemist asks her, then looks back and forth between Roselight and Larkstrike. "Both of your parents are going."

"You don't need to point that out," Volestorm says to her, noticing the way that Roselight stiffened lightly. "Its clear already that that's the case."

"Just asking," she says.

"We all have the dawn survey patrol," Larkstrike reminds them. "We need to leave soon if we want to be able to check the entire new territory before they leave."

"Or we can leave after," Ivyfur points out. "It isn't really a set time. The patrol is just to make sure that nothing dangerous is in the newer territory areas. I'm sure they'd be okay with it."

"True," Larkstrike says, and stands, looking at Roselight. "Pufftail and Deadeye want us all to get together for one more meal before they leave."

She nods, standing as well, and they pad out of the den. The rest of the clan was waiting in the main area of the barn, Moongaze and Birdwhisper padding around with traveling herbs to give to the cats already awake that were going on the journey. The sun was just barely rising by then, a soft light coming into the barn letting the cats see.

"There you two are," Pufftail comments as Larkstrike and Roselight join them. Fluffheart and Willowspot were already there, Lilykit sleeping peacefully against Willowspot's flank as the four of them waited for the last two.

"Did you wake her up just to come out here?," Larkstrike asks.

She nods. "Flowerheart is the only queen still sleeping. Snowflight took Smokekit out so they could be with Needleclaw before everyone leaves."

"Your four listen to us," Deadeye says to he and Pufftail's kits. "Our aim is always going to be safety while we're gone. We will do everything we can to come back. Coming back safe is the first and more important prize. The flower is the second."

"But the clans need the flower to survive," Roselight says. "If you don't get the flower, then none of us will be safe."

"Cats can survive without Starclan," Pufftail says. "Kittypets don't have Starclan, and neither do Loners and Rogues. They still live on."

"If we need to," Deadeye starts. "We can leave the lake and live somewhere else. Don't doubt our love for you all. We would give anything to be with you."

"Except your lives, right?," Finchheart jokes.

"Obviously," Pufftail says, cuffing her ear, making her laugh.

They all settle into a light conversation as they eat until Skystar stands from where he was eating, looking at Badgerstripe. "Do you remember everything I taught you?"

"Yes. I remember," she says. "Protect the borders, keep a close eye on the newer territory, and make sure that there are no conflicts in the clan."

"Good," he says, then leans down to touch noses with her. "I love you."

"Come back safe," she says as Skystar says goodbye to their kits.

He nods to her, then stands straighter to address the cats going on the journey. "We need to leave now."

The cats going on the journey stand, saying goodbye to their friends and family not going before picking up their batch of traveling herbs and gathering at the entrance. They wait until Skystar waves his tail and leads the way out of the camp before following.

* * *

 **And so, the journey begins.**

 **There's not much I have to say for this chapter. Only one thing if I haven't mentioned it before. The fact that there is both at least one pov going on the mission and one that is staying at the camp. I'm not going to explain anything about it, I'll let you guys speculate, but keep your minds open. Within a couple more chapters I'm about to throw a curve ball at some of you guys XD**

 **Thank you guys so much for continuing to read this story as unorganized it's updates are! I'm going to be honest, with everything that has happened irl to Sky/Adam, plus the fact that nearly all of them are leaving Minecraft behind, I've been a little discouraged. It almost feels wrong to be writing about them at this point if I, honestly, don't even watch what many of them put out. I guess it just kind of feels like I'm turning them back to a place that they don't enjoy that much, at least with my Minecraft stories. But because of you guys reading this story (and rereading Different) I realized something.**

 **Right now, what I really enjoy writing about is Warriors. I don't get the bad feeling like I do with my other stories. Even this, even though it does have TC in it, is really fun for me to write. I still love everything that TC did in the past to make me smile and laugh, but I think that my days of coming up with new stories for strictly Minecraft are over. I have some crossovers for warriors and TC that may or may not come out in the future, but other than the stories that are already in progress, I think I'm done.**

 **So, what I'm going to do is finish off the stories that I've started. In specifics, Similarly Different, We Are The Last, and The Wings Of Battle. Those are the ones I have the most drive to finish, and have the most fun writing. I'll do my best with the others, but no guarantees.**

 **But, yeah! Thank you guys so much for continuing to read this story. Hopefully I'll be able to update this in a better time period than I have been. Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	17. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen, Roselight's pov

"Slow down, Evemist," Larkstrike says, calling out to her as she runs ahead of the rest of us. "Its just a survey patrol. We aren't on a race here."

She slows down, looking at us over her shoulder. "Its not like we have to stay together during the survey. I remember that we have to split up to cover more ground."

"That doesn't mean you can just run off though," I remind her. "There's a reason that it's called a survey patrol. We need to make sure that it's safe."

"I know that," she says, falling back to pad beside me.

"We do need to split up," Volestorm says. "But we need to do it wisely. Evemist, you and Ivyfur go check the newer territory closer to the Windclan border. The three of us wil be at the area past the old stump. When you finish or just need to find us, go by the stump." The two of them nod and start padding away, while Volestorm, Larkstrike, and I continue padding to our area to survey.

* * *

"Let's start here," Volestorm says a while later, pausing next to a bunch of bushes.

"I hope that they all return safe," Larkstrike sighs, talking about our parents and the rest of them.

"They said it themselves. It'll be dangerous. But they were also part of the group cast out, and Emberwish and Foxblaze were living past borders for a long time before they found them, and Emberwish is with them. I'm sure that they'll come back fine," Volestorm says.

"Yeah." I pause. "What exactly do we need to look for again?," I ask.

"Bones from fresh-kill, pawprints, any scent that shouldn't be there, that sort of thing," Volestorm says.

Larkstrike sneezes, pulling his head back from the small patch of flowers he had accidentally moved his head into. "Well I can assure that the only unusual thing over here is that there is a random patch of flowers."

We all laugh, but we're interrupted when suddenly Ivyfur runs in, skidding to a stop and panting heavily. She seemed really concerned, and we all look at her worried.

"What's wrong?," Larkstrike asks. "Where's Evemist?"

"She- Follow- Left- Didn't see-," she pants, then catches her breath. "I was looking at a few old rabbit burrows, and when I looked to where she had been she disappeared. I followed her scent, and it crossed the border, but..."

She stops, and I feel my pelt begin to stand on end. "What?"

"I... I think she's following Skystar and the others."

"Take us there," Volestorm says, and she nods. She runs the way we had been, the three of us following behind her.

Eventually we reach the border, scenting the ground for scents. I catch Evemist's scent, and the older scents of all the cats from the travelling group underneath it.

"What do we do?," I ask, looking to where the others had been only to stand straighter and look around, fear making my pelt go on end when I see where they were. "Uh, I'm not sure that's a good idea!"

"We need to find her," Larkstrike tells me, padding further and further away from the border toward the direction of the Moonpool. "We can't just let her follow them. Who knows what could happen."

I look at Volestorm, expecting him to think it wasn't a good idea, but he was already crossing the border. "Your brother is right. If we don't go after her now, we might never catch up to her."

"But the clan-"

"Will be fine without us, Roselight," Larkstrike says, finishing my sentence his own way. "Ivyfur! You coming?!"

"Yeah," she says, jumping past me. They continue padding away, me looking from them to the direction of the barn and back for a few moments. Then I just sigh, padding closer to the border.

I shiver as I place my paw over the border, hating the feeling that I'm breaking the rules, before looking toward the others' shrinking figures. "Wait up!"

* * *

Third pov

"So... what's the plan?," Deadeye, around the traveling herbs that he and everyone else were carrying, asks Skystar as they start following the stream up to the Moonpool. "We need to go in the same direction the entire time, but we also don't want to get into too much danger. And we can't go too fast since Fluffheart is still healing."

"My plan?," Skystar asks around his own herbs, looking at the Lightclan deputy. Then the leader faces forward again. "We take it day by day. We can't plan too far ahead since we don't know what we'll come across. I mean, we can still plan for situations we might get into, but not so much that we won't be able to handle things when they come along if they weren't what we were expecting."

"There will come a point where something will happen and we can't just think about it then," Deadeye reminds Skystar.

"But we don't know when that is and what it will be," Skystar tells him. "We can plan for things like injuries and sickness, but the rest is out of our control."

"I see your point," Deadeye says, and they fall into a silence as they pad on.

"Hey guys," they hear a bit later, and turn to see Snakepelt next to a bramble thicket. He was looking inside, and so Deadeye pads over and looks inside.

"Fox," Deadeye says as Skystar pads up. There was a pile of fox dung inside and a half eaten rabbit, as well as a few strands of bright orange fur sticking to where the entrance was.

"Its fresh," Skystar notes, and looks around. "We haven't even left Thunderclan territory."

"They must know by now, right?," Ravenstorm asks. "Thunderclan were always watching out for fox and badger in their territory, as far as I remember."

"We shouldn't assume," Moongaze says to his littermate before turning to Skystar. "I think we should go to the Thunderclan camp and warn them. We are here already."

"We can't just waltz into their camp and expect them to be okay with it, though," Deadeye says. "They would know about it soon if the don't already. Thunderclan is capable of chasing off foxes and badgers."

"And we have our own thing to worry about," Whitepelt mentions. "Our job right now is to get that flower and bring it back as quickly as possible and remain safe."

"Which means we need to get going sooner rather than later," Skystar says, padding in the direction they had been going in. The rest of the group follow behind. They follow the stream until they reach the Moonpool, going over the ridge down to the pool. Their paws fall into the ancient ones from their ancestors, making some of them shiver at the thought.

"Its hard to believe that the clans weren't the first here," Pufftail says, and looks up. Her fur stands on end for a moment before it flattens again, and Deadeye looks at her.

"What is it?," he asks.

"I can see them," she says. "They're... I wish you could see."

Moongaze, overhearing what she said, pads closer. "What is it?"

She's silent for a moment, seeming to follow something, before looking at the medicine cat. "They want us to talk to them."

Moongaze nods and pads over to Skystar, telling him that they should speak to Starclan before leaving the territories. Skystar listens to him and nods, then looks at the group. "Everyone drink from the pool and then sleep. Starclan will bring you to them."

Slowly, each cat does as he says until each of them have fallen asleep, joining Starclan in their world.

* * *

 **So there's that.**

 **I totally forgot that the leader of Thunderclan in this story is Thornstar and not Seedstar. I was editing this chapter and I was like, maybe a couple of warriors from Thunderclan should guide them across their territory until they reach the moonpool, so I went to decide which warriors should and discovered, that Seedstar is actually gone. I have never felt more stupid in my life.**

 **As you can see, though, I scrapped that warriors guiding thing.**

 **If you happen to read my other stories, then expect updates for all of them. I've almost finished the next episode of Similarly Different, then I have a chapter that I can put up for The Wings Of Battle, and then I should be able to finish the next chapter of We Are The Last. Keep an eye out for those!**

 **Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	18. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen, Roselight's pov

I pant as Volestorm, Ivyfur, and Larkstrike run ahead. We had found the scent trail that Evemist had left and were following it, and with each step away from our territory my fur stood further and further on edge.

"Guys!," I shout as they start padding into Thunderclan territory, following the stream up to the Moonpool. "I still don't think this is a good idea."

"We're already at the other side of the lake," Larkstrike says. "Its too late to go back."

"Plus, we've almost reached her," Ivyfur says, running ahead.

"Don't go too far ahead," Volestorm warns his youngest sister.

"I'll be fine," she shouts back, and I shiver.

"We shouldn't be shouting," I say. "What if a patrol hears us? What if our clan hears us?"

"They won't," Larkstrike says. "Its too early for any sunhigh patrols. Plus, our clan left way before we started following them!"

"Be quiet," we hear, and jump. Evemist was looking back at us with a glare before looking through some bushes.

"What are you doing, Evemist?," I say. "You're being so mouse-brained!"

"Quiet," she hisses back at me. "You don't want them to hear you, do you?"

The four of us pad forward next to her, and peer through the bushes like she was. I see a shining pool at first, the stream we had been following coming from it. Then I notice the cats from our clan all asleep around it, so motionless it would be difficult to tell if they were alive or not.

"They fell asleep just a bit ago," Evemist says, and looks to Larkstrike and I. "Pufftail said something to Deadeye and Moongaze, and then Skystar said to drink from the pool and sleep."

"Then we should too," Ivyfur says, passing through the bushes and carefully stepping over and around the older Lightclan warriors.

"Ivyfur. Get back here," Volestorm says.

It was too late though, as she had already drank from the pool and was padding back over. Evemist watches as she falls asleep before shrugging and doing the same.

It's when Larkstrike follows them that Volestorm sighs and looks at me. "Are you gonna do it? I don't want to leave you alone."

"I-I mean... I guess..."

The two of us go and drink from the pool before padding back behind the bushes. I could feel my eyes start to droop as we lay down, and it's only a moment after he falls asleep that I do the same.

* * *

"We want to thank all of you for going on this journey," a blue-gray she-cat says as a appear in Starclan's territory, her fur shining slightly and very transparent in comparison to the Lightclan warriors. The rest of the patrol I was on were next to me, us hidden behind a bunch of bushes like in the clan's territories.

"This is Starclan?," I whisper, looking at the cats that were gathered around the group of Lightclan warriors. "They don't look like what I've heard."

Ivyfur shushes me, and I roll my eyes before listening in.

"You all knew this would be dangerous, and how a choice you make could be what decides whether you live or die," the she-cat continues. "The fact that you were aware of this and still decided to come is the reason that we have so much respect for you."

The Starclan cats are still for a few moments before Bluestar bows, and the rest of them slowly join.

"Wow," Evemist breathes, taking in the scene. "They are really..."

"Powerful," Larkstrike finishes.

I nod, agreeing with their thoughts, before the Starclan cats stand up again. "Whatever happens on this journey, remember that we will be thinking of you and what you are doing not only for the clans, but for Starclan itself."

At that, the Starclan cats turn one by one and pad away, leaving the Lightclan group on their own. Skystar says a few words to the group before they lay down and all disappear.

"Quick. Before Starclan finds us," Ivyfur says, copying what our parents and their friends and littermates had done moments ago before disappearing.

I lay down too, curling up and closing my eyes, feeling a chill as I return to the clans' world.

* * *

"Roselight. Wake up," I hear, and groan. I open my eyes to see Larkstrike looking down on me, and when he sees me he stands up straighter, looking at the four of us. "We should return to the clans. We've already been gone all day." I look up through the branches above us, noticing that the light blue color of the sky was beginning to darken and change to different colors as well as the rays of sunlight that make it to us were more striking than they were when we found the group.

"But we should go with them," Evemist says, looking through the branches at the group that was padding away from the entrance to Starclan's territory. "It'll be fun! We can also help them if they need it."

"They won't need help," Volestorm says. "Our parents can hold their own. They've done it before and they can do it again."

Evemist looks at me. "Roselight. Don't you want to help Deadeye and Pufftail? This is a dangerous journey like Starclan said. Something could happen. You could save their lives!"

"Don't manipulate her into going, Evemist," Larkstrike growls. "You know she's already freaked out about them leaving. That is just cheap and downright shameful."

"I wanna go," I say, jumping up and quickly going to stand next to Evemist. "If... If I can make sure that they're okay, then..."

For a few moments, there is silence. "Well I'm not letting my littermate go without me," Larkstrike says.

Ivyfur looks at Volestorm. "I'm going too. Whether or not you want to is up to you."

Volestorm looks at all of us for a moment. He turns, looking down the stream to where one could see part of the lake as well as the beach, before looking back at us and sighing. "I wish we would go back, but I'm not letting my sister and best friend go without me."

Larkstrike cheers, "There you go bud!," and runs through the bushes to where the Lightclan warriors had been before, Evemist and Ivyfur following.

Volestorm pads by me, following them. "I was talking about you," he says to me before going into the bushes.

I just stare for a moment before shaking out my fur and following.

* * *

"They're stopping," Ivyfur says suddenly, a while later. "Why are they stopping?"

"It's night, mouse-brain," Evemist says. "We all need to sleep."

"Quiet guys," Larkstrike whispers. "If they hear us, we'll be in so much trouble."

"We need to hunt," I hear Skystar announce. "I want one patrol to look around the area, and two others to go hunt."

"We need to hide," I say. "If they find us..."

"I know," Volestorm says, and looks around.

"C'mon," Larkstrike says suddenly, running not far from us before disappearing.

"Where'd you go?," Volestorm asks.

Larkstrike's head pops up from the ground. "Fox den."

"No," Evemist groans as we start padding into the hole in the ground. "We'll smell like fox for moons."

"You'll be fine," Larkstrike says. "It isn't too strong anyways. Just enough to cover our scents."

I hear pawsteps coming our way, and gasp before whispering to them. "Hurry. They're coming."

The two of them follow us the rest of the way in, and we hide against the wall of the den. The pawsteps go for a while before silencing, and I hear Ivyfur. "Can you hear anything?"

I listen for a moment before holding my tail up, telling them to stay there, and slowly moving toward the mouth of the den before peaking out. At first a see nothing until a white head and brown ears look into the cave, and I duck back.

"Did you see something?," I hear Deadeye ask, and I cringe.

'Please don't come in. Please don't come in,' I think.

"I thought..." Silence. "Nothing," Whitepelt says. "It's good."

"I hope it would be," Darkpelt says, and his voice starts getting quieter. "Smells like the fox moved out."

I wait a moment before looking out again. Whitepelt was looking in the den before turning away a split second later and padding off with the rest of the survey patrol, slowly disappearing from my sight.

* * *

 **So... yeah. There's a couple more cats leaving the clan than planned XD**

 **Looking at the writing in this chapter (and most likely other chapters around this time), I think my writing has improved. I wrote this chapter probably a good year ago, and it's just been chilling in my kindle's notes for a loooooong time. I later chapters my current writing style will surface more and more, and I hope it is more pleasing to read. This chapter feels a little rushed and idk why, so sorry.**

 **Another thing I just remembered is how this story is actually a little bit cheesy with a couple things. It can follow clichés and stuff like that. I like it anyhow, but just a warning.**

 **Also, just remembered one particular thing that you guys will find out in a couple chapters. I won't reveal anything, but I will say that I hated myself for a little bit afterward for what I had done. Think of that what you will.**

 **And one last thing that I don't think I've mentioned before. Would you guys like it if I updated this more often than I have been? Sorry if I have mentioned it before and I'm just repeating at this point, but I guess this is a good reminder in case I have.**

 **Anyways, I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Another one will either be up this Wednesday or next Saturday. Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	19. Chapter 17

**Hey guys! Sorry for no update on Saturday.**

* * *

Chapter Seventeen, Moongaze's pov

"Easy, Fluffheart," I say as he lays down, looking like he's in pain.

"I thought it was better," he says, talking about his old wound.

"It's still a bit early for all this stress on it. We've already left though, so you'll have to deal with it until it is completely better."

"I wish I didn't," he sighs, resting his head down.

"Sadly, you will," I say, and he closes his eyes to sleep until the hunting patrols return.

"He okay?," I hear, and turn to see Skystar padding up.

I meet him halfway. "His wound is just being stubborn. He'll be fine."

Skystar nods. "Good."

"Where are we going next?," I ask him.

"Toward the mountains," he says, pointing with his tail to where there was a faint outline of mountains in the far distance, the starts hidden behind. "After that... who knows."

"Hopefully we all come out of it okay," I sigh, and he nods, padding away.

It's not long until the hunting patrols return, and we spread the food out within us. I lay with Redwing to eat before Ravenstorm and Snakepelt go to lookout for a bit in the night while the rest of us sleep, and we all find places to sleep.

"Goodnight, Moongaze," Redwing says, purring as I lay behind her and rest my head on her shoulder.

"Goodnight."

* * *

The first thing I hear when I wake up is chirping birds, as well as some talking from other cats. The grass I was laying on tickles my nose, and I rub it with a paw to get rid of an itch as I sit up.

"Good. You're up," I hear, and see Pufftail looking over at me. "Eat some fresh kill. We're leaving soon."

She pads over with a mouse, dropping it in front of me. I notice that Emberwish seemed on edge, and look at Pufftail as I eat. "Is she okay?"

"Hm?" She follows my gaze. "Oh. She thought she heard something over by where the fox den was. We couldn't smell anything though."

"Could it have been the fox?," I ask, concerned.

She shakes her head. "No. The survey patrol said there was nothing there and the scent was stale. It was stale when they checked it at sunrise, too."

"As long as we're safe," I say, and she nods, padding off.

It's not long before I finish, as does the rest of the group that had just woken up. We all wait until Skystar gives the call to continue, and when he does we begin continuing on.

"I'm fine. Just stiff," I hear Fluffheart say from behind, and look back to see his littermates padding next to him, ready to help just in case.

"He's okay, right?," Russetspots asks me.

I nod. "He's still recovering his strength, and the wound will ache for a bit, but he'll be fine." I look at him. "I know you're his best friend."

"It would kill me if something else happened to him," Russetspots admits after a moment. "I wish I had been there."

"Don't blame yourself," I tell him. "If you think about it, it was better you had been at the camp. You wouldn't have wanted to leave to go get help because you'd be so worried about Fluffheart."

He nods. "Kinda selfish, honestly. I would rather be with him to know if he is okay instead of getting help so he'll be okay in the future."

"Loyal," I correct, and he looks at me. "You would have been loyal. Not that if you left you wouldn't have been, but by staying by his side, you wouldn't have let him go without a friend if he had died, even if you had to watch it happen."

"Well, I guess that our gifts won't always be good for us, then."

"Apparently not," I sigh.

Russetspots stares at me for a moment before sighing and looking away. "I wish that whole thing hadn't happened at all."

"Don't worry," I tell him. "None of us do."

* * *

We walk a bit longer before Deadeye suddenly stops up ahead, holding his tail up to stop us. He exchanges some words with Skystar, and I pad closer to them.

"What's wrong?," I ask.

"Pufftail heard something," Deadeye explains, and Pufftail, who had been next to him as we traveled, nods.

I scent the air, and a foul scent hits my tongue. "So... We came across an abandoned fox den not long ago, right?"

Skystar nods, and I start padding in the direction the scent was coming from. It leads me through the trees over to a clearing, and I look into the clearing before ducking a moment later and crawling back to the group.

"What's there?," Skystar asks.

"It's a fox, isn't it?," Pufftail asks, sounding tense.

"Yeah," I say. "How'd you know? The scent wasn't strong enough from here to recognize."

"Fox!," we hear, and spin around to where Pufftail had been looking to see Sunfoot and Darkpelt quickly backing away from where a few snarling foxes were emerging from the undergrowth. The lead one darts it's eyes around, drool dripping from it's mouth, and starts barking at us. The other two creep out further, waiting for the lead one.

"We need to intimidate them!," Skystar shouts. "Push them back!"

We all start growling or hissing at them, every once in a while taking a few steps forward. The two that were behind the lead fox become fazed, and step back until the lead fox starts barking back at us.

"It isn't working!," Needleclaw shouts.

The lead fox whips it's head toward him, barks, and jumps forward. We watch in horror as the fox grabs him and picks him up, shaking him in the air.

"Let him go!," Mudsplash shouts, clawing at the fox's hind leg.

We hear the other two foxes start barking as well, and before I know it I'm being knocked away from the scene by a giant white paw. The fox growls at me, but before it can hurt me it yelps.

"Go to safety!," Deadeye, who had jumped on the fox's head, shouts to me. "We need you to be able to help anyone that's injured!"

"No way I'm staying out of this!," I shout, jumping forward to bite at the fox's front paw.

The fox yelps, jumping back and knocking Deadeye off. Pufftail, who had been about to jump on it's back, instead jumps into it's shoulder.

The fox gets knocked over, landing heavily on it's side, while Pufftail flies over a few tail lengths past the fox. "Pufftail!," Deadeye shouts.

"I'm fine!," she shouts back, shaking her head as she sits up. She then turns and scrambles away as the lead fox backs into where she had been. It was still shaking Needleclaw around, growling at any of the group when they got near before continuing to shake the striped warrior.

"We need to get it to let go of him!," Skystar shouts, then biting into the back of the neck one of the other foxes. It howls, shaking around, and he jumps off as well as Darkpelt while Ravenstorm and Snakepelt back away.

The fox whimpers as it retreats into the thicker trees, the four warriors that had been attacking it making it retreat quicker, and we all look at the lead fox. The other fox left was already seeming threatened, and all it takes is one intimidating jump forward from Redwing to run it off.

"If we try to get him out, the fox will crush him!," I shout.

"But we can't leave him there!," Whitepelt yowls.

"I know what to do!," Deadeye shouts, and runs over while looking at Pufftail. "Do what you did before! To that other fox!"

"But-"

"Trust me!" He turns. "Get ready break his fall!," he then shouts over to Whitepelt and Mudsplash.

Deadeye darts in front of the fox, and growls at it before sprinting forward and biting at it's legs like I had been to the other one. The fox growls, and lifts onto it's hind legs to stomp on him.

Then Pufftail pounces at it, landing on it's shoulder and knocking it off balance. It yelps at the surprise, in the process accidentally letting go of Needleclaw and sending him flying over to where Whitepelt and Mudsplash were waiting as it falls.

"Get the fox away!," I shout, running over to Needleclaw.

He groans as Whitepelt and Mudsplash set him down, and sways on his paws. "Lay down," I tell him.

"I'm so dizzy," he groans, following what I say, and then coughs. "And I feel sick."

I check his wounds, and while there were many of them, one from each of the fox's teeth, they weren't very deep and would heal quickly. "Your wounds will be okay. Just stay down for a bit so you can get rid of that dizziness and sick feeling."

"Gladly," he says, resting his head down and closing his eyes. I look around to see that the lead fox had retreated, and the cats in the group were calming down from the adrenaline of the fight.

"Does he need anything?," Redwing asks me, and I shake my head.

"No. He isn't sick from bellyache. It was the fox shaking him that made him sick and dizzy. And his wounds are better left alone at the moment. With foxes around, it'd be too dangerous to try and get the right herbs if it'll be okay left alone." I then look over to Skystar. "Let's stay here for a bit!"

He nods, then addresses the rest of the group. "Two patrols check the area! We don't want the foxes to come back."

* * *

 **And there's the chapter.**

 **Sorry again that this update is a couple days late. For some reason the past few days have been exhausting (though it may have to do with how I'm not sleeping very well only because I wanted to watch a youtuber play the walking dead and zombies are basically one of my worst nightmares, but I won't stop watching it until I've caught up). Just last night I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall asleep for another couple hours. But fear not! All will be better in time.**

 **I'm going to update We Are The Last right after this, so if you read that then go check it out. There's not really anything I have left to say about this chapter otherwise, so... yeah XP**

 **Hope you all enjoyed! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	20. Chapter 18

**Whaaaaaaaat, I _totally_ didn't miss an update...**

* * *

Chapter Eighteen, Deadeye's pov

I shake out my fur as the survey patrols leave, calming my nerves about sending warriors away from the group where there could be foxes. The stench of them were still in the air, making my fur bristle.

"They're gone," I hear, and turn to see Pufftail padding up. "You don't need to worry about anything."

"I can't help it," I sigh, sitting, and look over to Needleclaw, who was taking deep breaths as he tries not to be sick. "And Needleclaw was hurt and feels sick because of what happened."

"You aren't blaming yourself, are you?," she asks me. "We were traveling for a while before they turned up. And you were the one who noticed in the first place."

"I just feel like I could've done more."

"You did all you could," she says, and sits next to me. "Just because you have the gift of bravery doesn't mean that when something happens to someone it's automatically your fault. Sometimes, bad things happen, and we can do nothing to stop that."

'But I could've,' I think, remembering what Moongaze and I had found out. Then I look around at the group at all of the other different 'We all could've.'

"Hey," she says, and I look at her. "Just take a few deep breaths. Don't go into your flee mode." I lay my ears down in embarrassment and she laughs, purring when I bump my head into her shoulder.

"I love you," I sigh, placing my head on top of hers. "Have I ever said that?"

"Only a few million times," she says, making me laugh. Then she is silent for a moment. "I hope the kits are okay..."

"They're fine," I reassure her. "They have been warriors four almost two whole season cycles now. They know not to get into trouble and to listen to who is in charge. Nothing will happen."

She sighs. "I know. I just miss them."

"I do too," I tell her. "And honestly, it could be worse. Think about Needleclaw. Snowflight and his kits are back at the camp, and Smokekit is only one moon old."

"But what about Lilykit?," she asks me. "She's a kit too."

"But not ours," I say. "She's Willowspot's, and both Willowspot and Spoteye are back home to protect her. She'll be fine."

"I hate to break up this moment," I hear, and open my eyes to see Mudsplash.

"Don't worry," I say, moving my head off of Pufftail's. "What did you find?"

"There's a fox den not far from here, and it smelled like there was milk," he reports.

"So there's young foxes," I say to myself, and stand. "Thanks. Where's the other patrol?"

"They got back the same time as mine. Ravenstorm scratched her pad though so I reported for her," he says, walking with me over to Skystar.

"Skystar," I call, and he looks at me. "The patrols found a fox den with a milk scent not far from here."

"They must have moved to the den here," he says.

"Darkpelt said the den here looked bigger than the den from before," Mudsplash tells us. "Its very possible the den from before wasn't big enough."

"Strange that they are in a group," I say. "They're usually independent."

"Its possible they may have joined together to protect their young ones," Skystar says. "Either way, there are foxes here. We need to move as soon as possible."

He then stands, and I follow him over to Moongaze and Needleclaw, the warrior talking with the medicine cat. They both look up as we approach.

"Do you feel any better, Needleclaw?," Skystar asks.

He nods. "Yeah. Still feel a little nauseous, but I'm not that dizzy anymore."

"Are you feeling good enough to travel?," I ask, and he nods.

"I would wish that we could stay put for a bit longer to make sure, but we do have to go," Moongaze says, agreeing.

Skystar nods and turns to the rest of the cats. "We have to go."

The group looks at him for a moment before those sitting down or laying down stand up, waiting for him to go ahead before beginning to follow.

"We need to figure out how to get past the mountains," I say to Skystar, padding beside him. "We don't want to get stuck up there for too long."

"Yeah," he says. "If we need to, we will go up and over. But I would rather find a tunnel or something of the sort so we can just go through."

"What if it caves in, though?," I ask him. "Or if we get lost? You remember the tunnels by Windclan and Thunderclan territory."

"I know," he sighs, and look at me as we pad on. "But I'd rather take that risk than have one of our cats get greencough from the cold in the mountains."

"I guess so," I say. "But we would also need to hunt, and there won't be much prey in the tunnels. Our only hope would be to carry a bunch of extra prey with us so that we can eat on the way."

"Good idea," he tells me, facing forward, and a long silence follows.

But he breaks it once we reach our next rest point. "Could you organize the patrols so that I can go around and see how everyone is doing?"

I nod. "Of course."

Before I pad away, though, he puts his tail on my shoulders. "I couldn't have asked for a better deputy or friend. Thank you for being by my side since we were young."

"I'll be helping you until we die," I tell him. "And you've been a great leader to look up to. Thank you for leading us so well for so long."

"Thanks," he says.

"And for what I said about helping you until we die," I start, whiskers twitching in amusement. "I guess that means that'll end soon, because if I know you, you tend to get yourself into trouble."

"Says the one who was backed up into a tree by foxes," he laughs.

"Says the one who I saved from foxes when we were kits," I shoot back, and he laughs loudly.

"Okay. Okay. You win. Go organize the patrols."

I nod to him, letting him pad off as I sit and think through who to send.

The patrols are sent off after long, and once they return we eat from the prey the hunting patrols found. By then, the sun was high in the sky and with the heat of the greenleaf sun beating down on us, we all were very tired.

"We should rest," I hear Moongaze suggest to Skystar. "Traveling at night would be better right now. The heat will make us thirsty and tired, and we won't make much progress."

I turn just in time to see Skystar nod, and he faces the group. "Let's rest here. We'll continue at nightfall."

* * *

 **So, I forgot about updating any story until Tuesday, and by then it would just be weird to update, so I decided to wait. Sorry about that.**

 **But, yeah. There's the chapter. Seriously have nothing to say about it really without spoiling future chapters, so... yeah.**

 **I really hope you enjoyed this episode! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**

 **Edit: Okay, so _apparently_ I was super dumb and wrote the ANs for this chapter at one point, but then never actually updated the story with this chapter. My bad XP**

 **Also, and this is for all the stories I'm working on, I have decided to update every three days or so. Doing updates once a week makes it easy for me to forget to do it, so hopefully doing an update every three days will help me with actually putting these chapters out there rather than just having them sit in my devices.**

 **But, yeah. Ttyl!**


	21. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen, Third pov

Larkstrike looks through the leaves of the tree that he and the other four younger warriors were hiding in. "They're laying in the shade. I think that they're falling asleep."

"Why?," Evemist asks. "It's only sunhigh."

"Maybe, but it's hot," Volestorm says. "They know what they're doing. We have to trust them."

"Well, shouldn't we go hunting then?," Ivyfur asks. "I mean... we can't expect them to leave now, right? We have time?"

Volestorm nods. "We do have time. Two of us should stay back though, just to watch the others and make sure they don't leave."

"I'll stay," Roselight says.

"I'll stay too," Larkstrike says.

"Just make sure that one of you comes looking for us if they do end up continuing on," Evemist tells them, Ivyfur already leaping from branch to branch in the opposite direction. Then the two of them as well as Volestorm leave, leaving Roselight and Larkstrike watching the group.

They lay there for a while until Roselight stops the silence. "Did it scare you when mom and dad went up against those foxes?"

Larkstrike is silent for a moment before nodding. "Especially when Pufftail would jump at them."

"I'm so scared," she then admits, feeling comfortable with her littermate who has understood her since they were kitted. "I'm scared something will happen to them or us or the mission will fail or..."

"They know how to defend themselves," Larkstrike tells her. "And we do too. And they won't fail the mission, okay?" Roselight is silent. "You have to trust that they will all be okay."

Roselight sighs, her gaze flicking from cat to cat in the group. "I don't know. I've just... I've got a bad feeling about this."

* * *

"We're getting closer to the mountains," Emberwish notes, looking not far ahead to the large wall of stone and dirt, and really far above, snow. "Do we have a plan about this?"

"If there are tunnels like the ones at the lake, we will be going through those. If not, we'll need to go over them," Skystar says. "Everyone split up and look for a tunnel. Come back when the moon is almost set so we can rest together before continuing on."

The cats split up, heading in different directions around the hills they were just beginning to move into. They nose around the trees and grass and bushes, looking for any sign of a hole in the ground, while a few stay at camp.

"Why can't I go?," Fluffheart groans as Moongaze makes him stay back and relax. "I'm well enough to journey, so I should be well enough to look for a tunnel."

"You aren't ready," Moongaze insists. "The journey is-"

"I know. I know. 'The journey is stressing my wound,' and 'I need to rest to get better.' I get it." Then he sighs. "I wish it would just be better already."

He then lays down and curls up into a ball, Moongaze watching him. The medicine cat twitches his tail as he watches for a few moments before turning and looking around at the cats remaining. Ravenstorm was there, licking at the scratch in her paw pad to clean it, and he pads over.

"It okay?," he asks his littermate, making her look up at him.

She nods, placing her paw down again. "I just don't want it to get infected. Who knows what'll happen next."

"Good idea," he says.

Ravenstorm looks past him at Fluffheart, the warrior's ears twitching in boredom and annoyance. "You can't stop him from helping forever."

"He's not ready," Moongaze growls, sitting. "His wound-"

"Has healed completely other than a few stray scabs," she tells him, then waves her tail. "What is going on? And don't tell me that nothing is, because I'm your littermate. I know more than you think."

He sighs. "Do you remember... You know how often I was checking on Pufftail after her kitting?" Ravenstorm nods. "During her kitting, her... She actually died for a bit."

"She what?!," Ravenstorm yowls. Moongaze hisses at her to keep quiet, and she twitches her ear in apology. "Sorry. But... seriously?"

"Afraid so," he sighs. "Her heart stopped. I managed to bring her back with a bit of help from Deadeye, but..."

He pauses, and Ravenstorm could see his fur starting to bristle as well as the worry radiating off of him. "What happened to her?"

Moongaze squeezes his eyes closed before opening them. "Part of her is in Starclan, but it isn't like with leaders after they lose a life or medicine cats. She... she actually has part of her living in the Starclan territory."

"How did you find out?," Ravenstorm asks.

"Deadeye told me something about the last gathering we all went to," he says. "He said that Pufftail was actually in the Starclan territory when they called us to tell us about this journey, and she told him that she could see Starclan cats among the others when the others and I were being called. No other warrior would be able to do that. Not even come back to life in the first place. But it wasn't her who... did that to her."

"Moongaze-"

"Deadeye and I think we can change the destiny of other cats. That's the only reason why he and I would've been able to bring her back to life, and why Darkpelt was able to stop Russetspots from being killed at the gathering that Lightclan was born in," he says, standing and starting to pace. "I can't trust myself anymore. Fluffheart could be destined to live until he dies of old age, but I could change that in a second. I don't want him to go out if it might be too early. I wouldn't be able to handle the guilt "

"Hey," Ravenstorm says sharply, making him quiet. "Look. You've done so much for our clan in the past three season cycles since Lightclan came to be. And if you can change the destiny of cats, you could've helped some of the clan live," she says. "There's a reason Darkpelt was able to survive that bluecough he got when we were cast out. You were the one who helped get the herbs for him. If you hadn't, then where would a lot of us be? Russetspots would've died, Frostpelt would never have been reunited with her family. Darkpelt would've died."

She suddenly stops, lowering her head and taking a breath. "Ravenstorm-"

"You have absolutely nothing to worry about," she says, looking up at him. "Its the best thing ever that you can change the destiny of cats. If you believe hard enough, you can save someone's life. And if you don't believe me-"

She stops, then padding between Moongaze and the mountain. "If you don't believe me, take this in. This mountain is as big as how impossible this journey will be. But we're going on it, because Starclan knows that you can do it."

"But what if they're wrong?," Moongaze asks. "What if we aren't any better than other cats? What if we can't do it."

"Well, believe it or not, you can," she says. "And if they don't believe it, they're wrong. You can do this." She stares him straight in the eye. "You can do anything you set your mind to."

Moongaze is silent for a moment before sighing and lowering his head. Ravenstorm pads over and nudges his shoulder.

"If you don't believe me, ask anyone we know if they feel like you've done something for them that is so big that everything would've changed," she tells him. "Because they all will."

Moongaze continues looking down for a few moment. "Thanks," he then breathes, looking up. "That... that really helped."

"Don't mention it," she says, then pads away.

"Moongaze!," he then hears, and sees Pufftail. "We found a tunnel. Help us round up the rest of the cats."

She then runs off, letting him stand, and he sighs. 'Here we go.'

* * *

 **I love it when siblings can be really comfortable with each other and talk about things that are worrying them. I truly do.**

 **Honestly, I'm dreading to post the next chapter purely because I'm so sad of what happens in the plot line because of it, but I guess that I had planned for it to happen since the very beginning. I only have myself to be upset with XD**

 **Not really much to say about this chapter, though. One thing I will say is that I'm seriously getting back into drawing and hopefully I'll manage to make a cover for this, and maybe a new cover for Different. The picture I'm drawing rn is serioudly going to be beautiful if I learn how to make shading look nice with colored pencils and if I manage to blend the colors well enough. It's a learning process XP**

 **Anyways, thank you guys for reading this so much! The next chapter will be out in a couple days, so be sure to look out for that. Hope you guys have a great couple of days until then! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	22. Chapter 20

**Sorry for the wait. Time got away from me.**

* * *

Chapter twenty, third pov

"Its so dark down here," Whitepelt says, she and the rest of the group deep down in the cave.

"Got that right," Russetspots says, then looks just behind him to where Fluffheart was, Whitepelt behind him. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine," Fluffheart says. "We've only been traveling for a bit."

"Are you sure this is the best idea?," Deadeye asks Skystar as they lead the group. "I mean, you know that Sunfoot's shoulder acts up sometimes, especially during the rainy season, every since it was dislocated. It's really wet down here. And dark."

"It's faster than going through the mountains," the leader says. "Anyways, there's snow on them. He'd be having the same problems. If we can get through the cave quickly, then hopefully nothing will happen that will slow us down."

"I think you're forgetting that we need to be well rested too," Deadeye says. "We can't travel forever. We need time to-"

"The sooner we get through, the sooner we'll be out," Skystar interrupts.

Deadeye just sighs, watching his leader pad on with a dismissive wave of his tail.

At the entrance of the cave, the five younger warriors were waiting. They could hear the voices of the older warriors echoing through the cave, and if they could hear the older warriors easily, the older warriors would hear them easily.

When the voices fade almost to nothing, and Larkstrike begins to pad into the cave, Roselight feels her fur bristle. "Wait. Shouldn't we go back?"

"You wanted to come with," Evemist says, padding past her into the cave.

"But-"

"I can go back with you," Volestorm says, standing by her while Ivyfur pads into the cave.

"But your sister-"

"I want to help her if she gets in trouble," he starts. "But I won't let someone go back all alone. Especially one of my friends."

"You don't have to," she tells him.

"I will, though," he says. "Are you going with, or going back?"

Roselight looks down, thinking.' _I could go back and be safe but... if something happens to Larkstrike or our parents..._ '

Then she sighs and pads up to the cave, looking back at Volestorm. "Let's go."

He smiles, padding into the cave behind her.

Just after they pad in, some rocks start crumbling and slowly tumble down the side of a steep hill above. A boulder sitting on the rocks becomes unbalanced and tumbles down the side as well, crashing into a fallen tree and making it roll. The tree falls down a small cliff, landing a bit above where part of the cave was.

Slowly, on the roof of the cave inside, a crack begins to form.

* * *

"Do you even know where we are?," Deadeye asks Skystar as they make another turn in the maze of tunnels.

"I'm following the breeze," Skystar says. "It has to come from somewhere."

"What if it's just a hole in the top of the cave?," the deputy then asks him.

"Then we go back and find another way."

They pad on a little further before Pufftail, of whom was walking behind Deadeye, slows. "Deadeye... I hear something," she says. The deputy slows too, making Skystar stop before stopping as well. He listens, and starts scenting the air.

"What is it?," Skystar asks him.

Deadeye listens for another moment, hearing multiple steady taps. He's about to open his mouth when there is a rumble in the cave, the ground shaking slightly under all of their feet.

"What was that?," Redwing asks from further back.

Whitepelt, bringing up the rear of the group, listens for a bit longer. Then she yelps, jumping a bit into the air as something hits her tail. "What just-"

She stops, looking down at the ground where there was a faint clatter. There was just a shape of a pebble rolling to a stop, and she straightens. Another falls right in front of her face, larger, making her look up.

Above them, a crack was slowly growing. The sound of lightning passes through the cave as it extends toward the front of the long line of cats, and she stares for a moment before hearing a different sound from behind her.

She turns and sees some shapes heading toward them. "Larkstrike?! Evemist?! I knew I saw you-"

"Just run!," Whitepelt hears Ivyfur yowl from further back, and a rumbling sound starts growing in her ears.

She gasps, turning forward and nudging Fluffheart. "Run! Cave in!"

"Follow me!," Skystar shouts from the front.

The cats all start running down the cave, taking twists and turns as they go. The cave in was slowly catching up, Volestorm and Roselight beginning to cough from the back as dust flies at them, the falling rocks almost hitting Volestorm's heals.

"Just keep going!," Volestorm yells, but directs it mostly at Roselight, who was absolutely radiating fear. "Don't stop! Don't look back!"

Skystar skids to a stop in the front, looking at three different ways to go in the cave. "The breeze stopped. I-I don't-"

Suddenly a shape of a cat jumps out in front of them, meowing to get their attention. "This way. Hurry!"

The cat darts into the left cave, and Skystar watches for a moment before following.

"Almost there!," the cat yowls back to the group a bit later. "Don't stop! Keep going straight!"

"It's almost got us!," Ivyfur yowls from the back, hearing Volestorm growl in pain as a rock hits his back leg.

"Volestorm! Are you okay?!," Roselight shouts, starting to look back at him.

"I'm fine. Keep going!," he says, limping along.

The cat leading the group jumps forward into a faintly lit cave, much larger and with fresher air. The cats from the group jump out from behind them, noticing his stillness and finally sitting. Some lay down to rest their aching legs as others pant heavily, not having run that fast in moons.

"Is everyone here?," Deadeye asks the group, seeing Roselight jump out of the cave.

There is a murmer of approval from the group before Evemist looks around, gasping. "Volestorm!"

Whitepelt, sitting by Roselight closest to the mouth of the falling cave, looks inside. There is a shape inside, just visible through all of the falling pebbles, struggling to stand up when they slipped at a final turn, and she sighs. "I've got him!"

"Whitepelt! Wait!," Ravenstorm shouts as she jumps back into the cave.

"Up. Get up. C'mon," Whitepelt tells Volestorm, letting him lean on her shoulder, favoring one back leg. "Let's go. We've gotta go."

Volestorm limps in front of her, looking forward to where faint outlines of cats where. Whitepelt gasps from behind him, a large rock hitting her head and making her dizzy.

"Volestorm!," Ivyfur shouts, she, Moongaze, and Redwing there when Mudsplash and Ravenstorm quickly pull him out of the cave.

"C'mon Whitepelt! Almost there!," Mudsplash shouts to her with fear in his eyes, seeing her shaking her head and swaying slightly.

She looks up after a moment and jumps forward, feeling teeth grab her scruff and pull her out of the cave just moments before the mouth of it crumbles and is closed off. Dust flies into the larger cave, making all of the cats cough.

When it finally settles, Ravenstorm looks to where Volestorm was laying. "You okay?"

"A rock hit my leg," he explains, his voice full of pain.

Ravenstorm then looks to where Whitepelt was laying, Moongaze looking at Volestorm's leg. "Whitepelt? How about you?"

There is no answer, making her lean down next to the white warrior. "Whitepelt?"

It's then Ravenstorm notices the sunken part of her head, blood starting to trickle out of her mouth. She gasps, and it's then that Mudsplash notices.

"Moongaze! Whitepelt's hurt!"

* * *

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Whitepelt**

 **Sorry again for the pause of updating. I've been trying to figure out the next chapter of WATL and wanted to get a couple more chapters out for that before updating this, but I figured that since most of this day I'll be dedicating to writing it I'd just update now.**

 **Another thing. All of the chapters of this were saved on my kindle, but as of a couple days ago my kindle has decided to just give up on connecting to wifi. This was the last chapter saved online, so from now on until further notice I'll have to rewrite everything from my kindle onto this website. That may slow the updates or make them happen more often. Who knows.**

 **I will hopefully have the next chapter for this up in a couple days. I know that you guys will be wanted to read the next one asap because of how this one ended. Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


	23. Chapter 21

**Sorry to leave you guys on a cliffhanger for so long.**

* * *

Chapter Twenty One, Moongaze's pov

I look over to Mudsplash and Ravenstorm, seeing them next to Whitepelt who was laying on the ground. She wasn't moving, and I look at Redwing before quickly running over.

I lean down and place my paw gently on the dent in Whitepelt's head. It was very deep, and when I get no reaction I look up at the two warriors waiting next to her. "Move."

They quickly scramble out of the way as I lean down next to Whitepelt's chest, placing my ear against it. I close my eyes, complete silence in the cave as the group and the other cat watch on. For a moment I hold my breath, just listening to see if I could hear a heartbeat. What was there was faint, and was quickly slowing.

'What do I do?,' I ask myself, straightening and looking at her. There was no way to fix this. Her brain would have been hit hard when her skull broke and dented inward. 'I... I can't do anything...'

I look up at Fluffheart and Needleclaw, who were waiting with intense worry in their eyes, and pad over. "Is she-"

"Stay with her," I say quietly. "She was hurt too severely. Stay with her and comfort her until she's gone."

They blink, unable to believe me, but Emberwish pads over and stands next to Needleclaw. "C'mon," she says, nudging him lightly. "She needs you."

There is grief in the air as the two brothers pad over to their last littermate, Needleclaw standing above as Fluffheart crouches next to their sister, starting to lick her head. Needleclaw then crouches, putting his muzzle into the fur on her neck and starting to whisper things to her.

I pad over too, sitting a tail length away while Redwing goes around saying, "Give them some privacy." I hear Needleclaw saying how Whitepelt had been the best sister they could ever have asked for and that they would miss her so much and that they would never forget her. He tells her to say hello in their dreams and to meet every one of their ancestors

Fluffheart, meanwhile, had moved from licking her fur to burying his face in it, and though he was being silent I could tell he was beginning to cry by the slight movement in his shoulders. That's when I pad closer, putting my head against Whitepelt's chest again to find that there was complete silence.

They look at me as I stand, and I look at them sadly before nodding.

Russetspots runs past me once Fluffheart openly sobs, crouching next to his friend and pressing his pelt against him to comfort him. Needleclaw was silently looking at their littermate, and I look around until seeing Emberwish and wave her over.

As Emberwish goes to comfort Needleclaw I stand straighter, padding away and stopping once Redwing runs next to me. "There was nothing you could do," she whispers to me, pressing her head against mine. "You would've helped if it was possible. We all know that."

"I wish it was," I admit, sitting with a thump and looking to the ground before closing my eyes. "There was nothing I could do. She was-"

"We know," she interrupts me, making me stop my growing hysteria. "Even you can't do everything. That's just the way it is. It wasn't your fault."

"Moongaze," I hear, and look up. Ravenstorm was there. I see what looks like guilt in her eyes, and remember the conversation we had just before entering the cave. "I... I wasn't-"

"I know," I say, and take a deep breath. "You didn't think this would ever happen. I... I get that."

"I'm so sorry," she says, and I shake my head.

"Don't be. You were right about everything else," I tell her, and she pads forward, pressing her head into my shoulder. I sigh. "I'm sorry. I knew how close you and Whitepelt were." The words feel heavy as they come out of my mouth, making me sigh again, and I lick my littermate's shoulder. "Go to Fluffheart and Needleclaw. You can all help each other."

"I think I'll help out Mudsplash," she says quietly, standing up straight. "He was... you know."

I nod, remembering that he and Whitepelt were quickly on their way to becoming mates, and watch as she pads away. Then I turn to Redwing. "Let's go look at Volestorm."

She nods, and follows me as we pad over to our injured kit and Ivyfur, who looks at us nervously. "Uh... hi mom... dad..."

"Later," I tell her strictly, and she nods. I then look down at Volestorm, who was looking up at me. "Let's look at your leg."

"What happened?," Redwing asks him as I crouch to look at his leg closer. There was an odd bump in it, and seemed slightly deformed.

"A rock hit my leg. It hurts pretty-" He stops to gasp in pain when I run my paw over the bump. "-bad."

"I think it's broken," I say. "At least cracked. Can you straighten your leg?"

"I'll try," he says, and his leg starts to move. He hisses after a moment, so I gently grab his lower leg in my mouth and straighten it for him, placing it down gently.

"Sorry," I tell him, seeing his pained expression. "I'd give you poppy seeds, but there are none here."

"It's all good," he tells me.

"Not broken," I say seeing his leg was shaped regularly. "The bone must be cracked and the bump is just some swelling. Just rest it for a bit."

"Anything I can do?," Redwing asks me. I shake my head.

"Just stay with him. I'm going to go see what's going on over there," I say, using my head to gesture to where Deadeye and Skystar were talking to the strange cat. She nods, letting me pad away.

"Moongaze," Deadeye says, seeing me pad up. He then gestures to the unknown cat. "This is Flicker."

I finally get a better look at the cat, the sun now at just the right angle to shine light over toward us. Flicker was a tabby, mostly gray, but had patches of ginger tabby fur. He seemed thin, but also very healthy.

I dip my head to him, as he does a moment later. "I'm sorry about your friend."

"It was just her time," I sigh, closing my eyes as Deadeye puts his tail over my shoulders. However, I open my eyes a moment later. "Thank you for helping us escape the cave in. We would have lost many more friends if you hadn't come along."

"It was no problem," he tells me, then looks at all three of us. "What are you all doing here?"

"We come from the lake," Skystar explains. "This whole group is some of one of five clans, and we are all watched over by Starclan, where our kin and friends and all cats of the clans go if they haven't done anything bad in their lives. Starclan, though, is sick. They need a flower in order to survive, and sent us on a journey in order to retrieve it."

"Well, on your way back to the lake I suggest you go over the mountain instead of through it," Flicker tells us. "That cave in just showed that. I'm going to have to move my group."

"Your group?," Deadeye asks.

Flicker nods. "There are only a few of us, but they're not far off. The cave in woke me up, and when I heard you all I couldn't just leave you to die."

"We are very thankful," Skystar tells him. "You must know the way out, then?"

Flicker nods and Skystar begins to say something else before Deadeye interrupts. "Would it be okay if we stayed with you for the day. That way we can rest and calm down after what has just happened."

I look at him in surprise, glancing to Skystar to see him looking at Deadeye through hooded eyes before moving his gaze back over to Flicker.

"For the day, yes," the cave cat says. "After that, we'll be moving and you will have to move too."

"Where's your group?," I ask.

"Down that tunnel," he says, nodding to a tunnel to our left before standing. "I'll be back soon. Don't leave this area. I can't guarantee we'll find you again in you do."

* * *

 **So, writing this chapter made me cry...**

 **Again, sorry for the wait. My kindle finally reconnected to wifi but I had so much going n that I didn't get a good time to sit down and transfer chapters over to here until now.**

 **As well as that, I've done something weird to my wrists and thumb, so I'm in a little bit of pain right now, but oh well. You guys need the chapter!**

 **I've got some more free time right now, so I'll do my best to work on my stories, but no guarantees that I'll have anything out soon. I might just end up writing future chapters or something like that.**

 **Anyways, I really hope you all that this chapter was well made at the very least because it isn't really a chapter that one should be happy to read, obviously. Let me know what you thought about it! Bye!**

 **Ttyl**

 **-TheRealDigiGal**


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